My Sister Is Different

Pulver, Robin. Way To Go, Alex! Illinois: Albert Whitman & Company, 1999
Way To Go, Alex is about a girl who has an older brother with "a brain that doesn't work right." She is jealous of her friend who is proud of her older brother and wishes Alex could be different. Their mother signs him up for the Special Olympics and the sister decides to train him for his events because she wants him to win something so that she can be proud of him. When the day comes Alex gets 3rd place in all the events and is very excited, but she is disappointed. In the end she realizes that Alex did the best that he could and realizes trying again and asking for help are not a bad thing.I felt that Pulver did a good job with the text in this book. It seemed as though a little girl had written it since phrases like, "my stomach is doing flip-flops" and talking about how she invented a "brain-fixing machine" for her brother. I thought that the over all message of the book was good, however it felt rushed at the end. I think that it would have been better if the narrator would have realized that her brother was a winner before the last page. I also felt that the illustrations in this book were a little disturbing. I thought that Alex's face being the same through out the whole book is on the edge of the line stereotypically. His sister's face also never changes from the scowl she begins with. I hoped to see the illustrator bring more than one emotion to the characters.