Ten-year-old Daisy Jackson finds comfort in counting, which she does via Roman numerals. She's also working on befriending a feral cat named Rumble Paws, and she's particularly good at "invisibilizing" herself, especially from her peers.
"Daisy is one of my favorite people," says Alison McGhee, author of Weird Sad and Silent, winner of the Minnesota Book Award in the category of Middle Grade Literature. "She fascinated me because, in Daisy, I felt my own childhood coming back." Daisy doesn't have many friends her age and is bullied by two of her classmates. However, when a new student starts at her school, she's surprised by his approach to the same bullies and by the fact that he takes notice of her.
Numbers are a useful tool for Daisy, but they also play a large part in the structure of the book. "Daisy's favorite number is 1-1-1," says McGhee. "She loves that number because to her it implies that there's always a way to begin again." Daisy's second favorite number is 222. "That means there's always room for something else; there's always room for someone else." McGhee took the time to have some fun by infusing a little bit of Daisy's numerical spirit in the chapter numbers and the word count.
Weird Sad and Silent can be found through various online retailers, at local booksellers, and it can always be located with the help of bookshop.org.
Minnesota Reads is produced at The North 103.3 with funding provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
