How I Saved My Father's Life (And Ruined Everything Else)

By Ann Hood

Book Overview

Acclaimed author Ann Hood brings Scholastic her first YA novel. A twelve year old girl's quest for faith and understanding, in the face of ballet, her parents' divorce, and a move to a new town. Madeline's struggle to understand the world around her will resonate with readers of all ages.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0439928192
• ISBN13: 9780439928199
• Release Date: March 2008
• Publisher: Scholastic Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.8" x 0.8" x 5.8"
• Age Range: 12 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 7 and higher

Customer Reviews

A quirky and fun read

Madeline Vandermeer decides to become a saint after she performs a miracle or two when she is 11. Her significant miracle (the other one involved moving a glass of water across a table by brain power alone) happens when her journalist father travels to Idaho by himself. One night during his trip, Madeline is awakened by a man's voice repeating her name. She falls asleep again to dream of snow in Idaho, and wakes up convinced that her father is in danger of being killed by an avalanche. Madeline dresses and slips out to hurry to a Catholic church, where she prays for God to save her father. When she finally arrives home, she is greeted by the news that her father has survived a horrendous avalanche. From that moment on, Madeline is convinced that she is on an inevitable path to sainthood. Her father arrives home a changed man. He seems depressed and says he needs to spend time working in New York. In fact, he becomes famous after writing about surviving the avalanche. For once, their family seems to be headed for financial stability. But then both parents break the news to Madeline and her little brother, Cody: they are getting divorced, and Dad is moving to New York City. Madeline is sure that when she performed her big miracle, she also ruined the rest of her life. She is convinced that she can right this situation by performing just one more miracle. But in the meantime, as she writes letters to the Pope and befriends a girl in a large Italian Catholic family, she blames her mother for what has happened to the family. Mom is seriously depressed, barely coping, and bewildered by Madeline's sudden fascination with a religion foreign to her own family. Madeline continues with her belief that she can fix everything by performing another miracle, despite the fact that her father remarries. His new wife, Ava Pomme, is a well-known gourmet tart baker, and they have a baby girl named Zoe. In fact, this new family, in Madeline's eyes, is a real family, while the fractured group of Mom, Madeline and Cody is no longer a family at all --- just an unhappy group who happens to live together. Madeline yearns to be a part of her father's family, who is unavoidably seen on television shows such as "Oprah" where the avalanche survival story is recounted repeatedly. When Mom announces that the magazine she writes food columns for will send the three of them to Italy on vacation, Madeline's dad announces that he, Ava and Zoe will also be in Italy. Madeline and Cody spend vacation time with both parents --- and Madeline discovers the most unexpected miracle of all. Madeline, Cody and their mother are appealing characters, and I empathized with Madeline's heartbreak and anger. Although some of the people in her life seem a little less well-rounded and a few story threads (such as Madeline's ballet) feel a bit flimsy, readers will be compelled to find out how Madeline's story concludes. --- Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon

Perfect book for tweens and teens

For those of us who've loved Ann Hood's novels, stories, essays, here's a book we can read along with our kids--daughters and sons! Yes, 12-year-old Madeline is a pain sometimes, but she's just not getting the respect she assumes she deserves for a saint-in-training. After all, didn't she save her father's life with her first miracle? But that was her other, perfect life. The one with two parents in the same house, not a father she visits occasionally with his new wife and growing new family. Ann Hood hits on just the right tone for a seething pre-teen who's taking her parents' divorce out on the parent she's living with (that would be her boring, writer mother who forces them to eat the healthy concoctions she's writing about for her magazine column). With a Nervous Nellie of a little brother, assorted, mostly nerdy friends, and a budding ballet career, Madeline is a character kids can relate to in a story perfectly written and resolved.

Courtesy of Teens Read Too

Twelve-year-old Madeline Vandermeer is on her way to becoming a bona fide saint. Oh, she's not religious or anything, and her family never goes to church, but she's already performed two miracles. The first was when she slid a glass of water across the kitchen table by only thinking about it. The second was when somebody called her name in the middle of the night, and she woke up with a terrible premonition that her father, on a writing assignment in Idaho, was in danger. After spending a day deep in prayer, she learned that he was one of only two people to survive an avalanche. However, after her second miracle, everything else in her life goes downhill. Her father, now rich and famous from his harrowing experience, divorces her mother, moves into a posh apartment in uptown New York, and marries Ava Pomme, a sophisticated woman famous for her apple tarts. Soon, they have their own daughter, and Madeline and her little brother, Cody, are forced to travel between the two parents. Madeline adores Ava and the feeling of once again being part of a family, if only for a weekend. How different Ava is from her own boring mother, who cooks disgusting food for her cooking column and embarrasses Madeline just by being there. If her mom hadn't been so ordinary, crying and scatterbrained over the simplest things, then maybe Madeline's father would have stayed. Determined to find some solace from her life, Madeline concentrates on ballet and her journey into sainthood, although that journey may not lead where she expects. I absolutely gobbled up this book. Even though Madeline's treatment of her mother sometimes disgusted me, I found her reactions, opinions, and character flaws to be incredibly lifelike and endearing. Although I am not religious or from a divorced family, I found this book to be most enjoyable, and highly recommend it to any preteen girl. Reviewed by: Allison Fraclose

A Book that Will Change How You Think About 12 Year-Olds!

This book is beyond incredible! Ann Hood is such an amazing writer and her book is so good and so real. Madeline is a character that so many readers will relate to, laugh with, cry with--and travel to Italy with! Her story is funny and sad and so true. And Madeline's struggle to understand her life is so real: her parents who don't understand her, her annoying little brother, her weird friends, and her love of ballet. So many readers will feel like they're reading about their own lives--and will love this book! Also recommended: Princess Diaries Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You The Invention of Hugo Cabret Series of Unfortunate Events All Judy Blume Gossip Girl The Clique

An AMAZING Book!

This is one of the most incredible books I've ever read! Madeline is totally like one of your friends--and her story is so good. She's brave and strong and trying to make a miracle for her parents to stay together. But there is so much she doesn't understand and her mom is so cool about it. It really makes your heart warm. All of my friends are reading it right now.