Review Detail

Ferris is about a multigenerational family living together, making it suited for readers far beyond the intended age range. The core of this story is about family, friends, and love even when it can be messy. Ferris’ relationship with her morally challenged younger sister, Pinky, strongly parallels Judy Blume’s Fudge series and Beverly Cleary’s Beezus and Ramona series.
Pinky’s antics provide overt comedy that makes her an endearing character. My favorite part is the officer’s discussion with her mother about Pinky’s attempt to rob a bank and how utterly remorseless she is. I could picture the scene so perfectly in my head as the officer’s bafflement that Pinky confessed to more crimes to go on her rap sheet.
Ferris's aunt and uncle are going through a difficult time and they use Ferris as the middleman. The fact that she keeps getting horrible hairstyles every time she goes near her aunt is hilarious. The imagery of her uncle painting a story of the world and only having a foot so far is funny yet also can hold a deeper expression of inflated confidence. Ferris's mother makes subtle comments that point to not being happy and likely suffering from mild depression that older audiences can appreciate.
Ferris has a close relationship with her grandmother, Charisse. There was enough foreshadowing that I was dreading that this was going to be a story about grief when she died. That part was handled quickly and ended up not being the focal point of the story. Moving on to a new baby in the family named in her honor was a nice touch about life beginning anew with the next generation and respecting those who came before.
Overall, I can see this book becoming a teacher's favorite with the tons of well-defined vocabulary that Ferris uses to understand her world better. It is a feel-good story set in the past and focused on the dynamics of the Wilkey family. I enjoyed the humor and the layered approach to the storytelling that gives the potential to keep coming back to this story at different ages to understand it differently. The fact that Pinky, Ferris, the mother, and the grandmother will mean something different to each person who reads this book makes it sure to be an enduring classic. I used an audiobook with this story and it captures Pinky’s personality especially well after she pulls her own teeth and has a lisp making her hard to understand. That comes through in the audiobook likely better than even the physical book could convey.