Spitting+Image+review+by+Amelia+Milling



(www.tower.com)

Spitting Image is a wonderful book by Shutta Crum. Complete with lots of suspense, tight friendships, unbroken determination, and the hard truth, this book is for everyone who loves to read about hard times in the '60's. It's about a pre-teen girl named Jessica K. Bovey who goes by Jessie and lives in a little town named Baylor. She doesn't know who her dad is- whenever she asks her mom about him, her face darkens and she doesn't reveal much. Jessie's best friends are a boy named Robert Ketchum and his little brother, Baby Blue. A lady named Mrs. Woodruff is a VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) volunteer who's trying to help the poor people in Baylor with medical bills, children's education, and regular needs, like food and clothing.

Robert needs new glasses, but they're a whopping fifty dollars, and the government will only pay for thirty, says Mrs. Woodruff. Robert's eyes get so bad that he can't even see Jessie waving at him, which makes Jessie determined to save up the twenty dollars that Robert needs to get new glasses. She takes some news reporters on a tour of Baylor for five dollars. She takes them to see Cooch, a dog that stands on his head for no apparent reason. But when they are taking pictures of Cooch, Baby Blue shows up, dirty and eating a peach. The reporters think it's a goldmine and take a thousand pictures of Baby, who goes over and rests his head on Cooch's belly, lying in the dirt. The reporters give Jessie an extra five dollars to split with Baby Blue, but she decides to keep it for Roberts glasses, thinking that it would go to waste if she gave it to Baby's mom, Beryle Anne. Baby Blue soon appears in the newspapers, lying in the dirt with his head on Cooch's belly, eating a peach, and no one is happy- especially Baby's drunkard father. Read the book to find out what happens!

Works Cited

(2010). Retrieved from http://www.tower.com/spitting-image-shutta-crum-hardcover/wapi/101969039

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