What a lovely, lovely book!
I don’t know anything about baseball. I’ve seen what the bat looks like, and I’ve heard random terms like ‘home run’ and ‘strike’, but that’s the extent of my knowledge. And yet, I loved Get a Grip, Vivy Cohen!, a book that’s all about baseball!
Vivy Cohen is fed up with people saying that girls should play softball, not baseball. When she’s practising the knuckleball (and I have no idea what that is!) with her brother Nate, a coach spots her and wants her to pitch for the team, Flying Squirrels. Vivy has no idea if her mother will let her because her mother always, always wants to ‘protect’ her. Vivy is autistic, plus she is the only girl in what is traditionally a boys’ sport. Things don’t look very promising—and they get worse when she suffers an accident during a game.
We learn all this, and more, through letters Vivy writes to Major League pitcher, VJ Capello. The absolute best thing is when VJ begins to write back. They share their ups and downs—one VJC (Vivian Jane Cohen) to another (Vincent James Capello)—and the most beautiful kind of friendship blossoms between them.
I love epistolary novels, and Get a Grip, Vivy Cohen! is right up there with my favourites. I love how the characters emerge as the story progresses. Vivy is such a loveable character! Honest, authentic, with little to filter what she’s thinking, my heart ached as I read her story. Vulnerable yet strong, bullied yet gritty, defeated yet determined, she’s the kind of character you root for. The VJ she writes to is no different. The fact that he writes to her warmed my heart, and each of his emails is a treasure.
Get a Grip, Vivy Cohen! is the kind of book you want more of. It’s a book where the characters stay with you long after you’ve finished the book, friends you wish well. I will look out for Sarah Kapit’s other books!
| Title | Get a Grip, Vivy Cohen! |
| Author | Sarah Kapit |
| Tags | Epistolary, Middle Grade, Autism |
| Rating (out of 5) | 5 |
| Ages | 10+ |
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