posted on 18 Jul 2024

Ferris by Kate Di Camillo

At the beginning of 2024, I had the pleasure of reading and reviewing Di Camillo’s The Puppets of Spelhorst and I was impressed at just how sensitive and complex her writing can be. She is a writer who avoids easy sentimentality and isn’t afraid to introduce patches of darkness and difficulty while remaining confident that younger readers need and will navigate these as part of a rounded, satisfying reading experience.

Now, six months later, along comes her latest offering, Ferris, which adds yet another layer of richness of characterisation and complexity of emotion. It’s a story of a family – admittedly an eccentric one – that’s bonded together with love and understanding and which has its own joys, strange relationships and mishaps. The motto of the book that keeps bubbling to the surface and which sums up the overall philosophy that pervades everything – “Every good story is a love story”.

You might by now be worrying that these are the ingredients for an overdose of sentiment but, fear not, Di Camillo is way too skilful to fall into that trap and the positivity is always counterbalanced: it’s a celebration of light but there’s also darkness here.

Fifth grade student, Emma Phineas Wilkey (who everyone calls Ferris) whose story lies at the heart of the book, is deeply attached to her grandmother, Charisse who tells the young girl that she sees ghosts – or rather a specific ghost – and this will later become an important theme in the book. Ferris has a friend from the town, Billy Jackson, who loves music and playing the piano and will, at the drop of a hat, take the opportunity to play ‘Mysterious Barricades’ to anyone who will listen.

Ferris also has a younger sister, Pinky, who is determined to gain fame by being arrested and becoming a famous felon - and she goes about it with some gusto. She also steals a pair of pliers and pulls out two of her own front teeth! 

Her father is obsessed with what’s in the attic, she has an uncle, Ted, living in the basement and trying to paint a masterpiece and is desperate to get back together with his hairdresser wife – who disastrously perms Ferris’s hair and Ferris has an obsession with her teacher, Mrs Mielk who insists on the importance of expanding her vocabulary:

“All life hinges on knowing the right word to use at the right time.” 

Ferris feels like a point of stability in this family as it whirls around and her unconditional love for and belief in in her grandmother is its emotional centre. This is certainly a book about the strong bonds of love that weave through families – especially those prepared to accept people for who they are. Inside the seemingly crazy maelstrom of family life it remains true that “Every good story is a love story”.

The book is published by Walker Books and you should be able to get a copy from your local independent bookshop – who will be happy to order you a copy if they don’t have it on the shelves.

 

Terry Potter

July 2024