Review by Frank Plowright
It’s the end of the school holidays, but rather than mourning that, Emika, Latasha and Stella are looking forward to starting fifth grade, which makes them ten or eleven years old, just the right age to be major fans of the online Witchlins. They’re also anticipating a new class teacher, Miss Marin, loved by all who’ve passed through her year. There’s an early indication, though, that Stella is having trouble with her reading, and that increases along with the assignments.
Kami Garcia prefaces Mixed-Up by noting it’s fiction, but based on her daughter’s experience with dyslexia and stresses that it can’t represent every individual’s experience of the condition. The lettering has been specifically typeset for easier reading. Such care to the specifics speaks of wanting to help anyone whose experience may be similar to Stella. She finds the reading much more difficult, and is constantly behind everyone else when it comes to finishing during classes. The contrast is made with the Witchlins website, which is visually based enabling Stella to navigate it with ease, but the new guidebook is primarily typeset.
Brittney Williams has a great track record with stories aimed at younger readers. Her art is generally appealing, yet kept simple, and is always emotionally strong. It’s important here to convey Stella’s lack of understanding about why she’s having problems, and her mood gradually shifts from happy through puzzled to miserable, all well conveyed.
Stella starts pushing away her friends because she’s not able to work her way through the online game via the manual,and it’s around two-thirds of the way through when her teacher diagnoses Stella’s difficulties and suggests she could do with help. Anyone experiencing similar difficulties to Stella is gently guided through the stages of the solutions. It means it’s a book worth parents and carers spending time with if they feel their children could be facing a similar challenge.
Williams alters her style to present pages from Stella’s own graphic novel reflecting her situation, and positivity is key throughout. Stella is supported and it’s stressed early that having difficulty reading doesn’t equate with stupidity, so with the right attention she’s enabled to flourish. The suspicion is that not all teachers are as diligent or observant as Mrs Marin, despite around one in ten people experiencing some form of dyslexia, so Garcia ends by supplying organisations able to help.
Mixed-Up is a skilful presentation tailored to address a specific situation and possible solutions, so it’s going to be invaluable to some readers while perhaps not quite grabbing others as much.
