Customer Reviews

The Very Ordered Existence of Merilee Marvelous

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I have been handing this book out to friends, family and teachers because it leaves the reader with a hopeful feeling, especially with regards to one's own sense of dislocation...not fitting in.
One recipient, who is an elementary school Special Ed teacher, was totally impressed with the author's insightful descriptions of autistic behavior - "Even the nuances!"
Many of the characters remind me of myself or people that I know...Veraleen, with her "big ole heart" that loves big and hates big, for example.
I wish this book would be chosen for school literature programs. It has all of the elements of good literature that students need to learn, including some phenomenal symbolism.
Everyone has thoroughly enjoyed it...great read for all ages!
Two suggestions for readers:
1) Read slowly. The sentences are so well-formed that you'll miss important bits of information if you try to skim over them.
2) Older people should empty their bladders before reading. 'Burst out laughing' humor is subtly woven into the narrative.

First of all, this is not just a book for 10-12 year old children. Teens and adults may well relate even better to the thoughts and experiences of Merilee Marvelous. Parents with high functioning children who "just don't seem to fit in" will find this a stirring narrative of provoking insight and light hearted humor about the inner thoughts of a "special child" as she relates to her world.

Readers may even recognize some of their own family and neighbors in the collection of eccentric Jumbo residents. Merilee explains, "It's amazing what people will tell you while sucking on a purple Tootsie Pop. I hand them out so that everyone will shut up and leave me alone, but all it seems to do is open up a whole can of worms."

This is a story with a beginning and an end much like a hello and a goodbye... a story told in a lacework pattern, handing out just the right amount of bread crumbs to lead the reader to a bear-hug conclusion. I felt like I was listening to a story told by a wizened old spirit.... remembering a great life story....a poignant story about love, fear and redemption. When I closed the cover on the last page, I was satisfied.

I love this tender coming-of-age story about outsider Merilee Monroe, a/k/a Dragon Girl to her fellow citizens in the thriving West Texas metropolis of Jumbo (population 1000, including the goats). When new misfits arrive in town desperately needing her help, Merilee is dragged into the heart-warming and heart-breaking world of family and friendships. I laughed aloud at the many comic scenes and amusing anecdotes about small-town life. And who doesn't have a mean-as-mudpie crazy old biddy somewhere in the family tree? For all that, the magical storyline took me down a path of souls lost and found. As prematurely cynical Merilee redefines her place in the emotional landmine-field known as her community, she discovers the most mysterious of all places in the universe: the hopeful human heart. A delightful read and not just for youngsters.

Suzanne Crowley is a beautiful writer. She has a unique style and Marilee has an unforgettable voice. From the beginning, the author grabs you with her humor, her insight into Asperberger and her understanding of all sorts of people, and you know that you are along for the whole West Texas ride. I can't wait to read Suzanne's second book.

This is a book that is really aimed at the general audience. Merilee Monroe, 13 has Asperger's Syndrome which is the spectrum partner to autism. She lives in the cultural desert town of Jumbo Texas with her parents and 10-year-old sister, Bitsy Ruth. The girls' mother, a New Yorker infuses the good townsfolk with literary interests by hosting poetry readings in a local shop.

Marilee cannot tie her shoes or ride a bicycle; she has coordination issues which are not uncommon among many people who have Asperger's Syndrome. Merilee has special interests that often don't include others. She loves dragons; she is literal to the point where she expects her Irish neighbors to "look like the little guy on the Lucky Charms [cereal] box." She is rigid about sequence and order; she cannot stand to be touched as she finds it painful. She laughs at the irony of having the nickname Hug as she dislikes hugs; the girls' father came up with that one after he nicknamed Bitsy Ruth Bug. Merilee credits him with wanting to be fair.

While Merilee is not without her peculiarities, she is a very believable character with Asperger's and ironically, she fits in with the townsfolk to a large extent. Many of the citizens of Jumbo, Texas are wildly eccentric and it is just their oddities that make them so endearing.

In fact, it is this strange mix of characters who do ironically fit into Merilee's Very Ordered Existence as their oddities move in counterpoint with her own. While many of their distinctive features are somewhat predictable, Merilee's are not and it is just this rhythmical sequencing that makes this an effective story.

Merilee is indeed a distinctive personality, even in this small town melting pot of odd characters. She dispenses purple Tootsie pops to pacify her neighbors so they won't disclose their personal problems with her; she befriends an 8-year-old boy with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. He, too is a plausible character facing a serious congenital condition.

Readers get lulled into this hot, sleepy little town where, like "Cheers," everybody knows your name. It is the kind of story that hearkens to bygone days of drinking fresh lemonade under a large shady tree or on a large, wrap-around porch while reclining in a rocking chair and enjoying the hound dog days of summer.

The songs, "In the Good Old Summer Time," and the Stone Poneys' 1968 "Beat of a Different Drum" could very well be the soundtracks to this book. Merilee is not afraid to accept her differences as a high-functioning person with Asperger's and continue marching to her own drummer.

Suzanne Crowley is an exceptional book author. I was right there with her every step of the way. Can't wait until the next book.

Everyone in Orlando has read it.

CH

I loved this little gem of a book that I didn't want it to end. I could have traveled on with Merilee and her friend through many more adventures. This is not just a book for kids and it is a great insight into children with Aspergers syndrome and fetal alcohol syndrome.

When I started reading this little gem of a book, I thought that it would be a fast read. I was mistaken. It took me awhile to read it because of the thought that had to be applied to comprehend the wonderful story. I selected this book to review because being a teacher, I have had the pleasure of having some autistic students in my class. I teach 10-12 year olds and I wanted to see some insight into the minds of my students. This gave me a lot to chew on.

Merilee is being raised in a small town in West Texas. She lives with her mother, father, sister, and a very mean ole grandma. She has a very ordered existence where she does everything on a time schedule. If her schedule is messed up, she gets nervous.

Into this existence comes two new characters, Veraleen and Biswick. Veraleen is a big woman with a very big heart, and Biswick is an 8-year-old boy who has been affected by fetal alcohol syndrome. The two of them help Merilee discover who she really is.

The characters in this kind of slow-paced book are bigger than life. The town of Jumbo is made up a lot of strange people. Merilee is very smart but can't say what she wants to say. Everything gets locked up inside her mind. But she is very caring about the people she does care about. She gets picked on in school, which was the hardest thing to read about since I am a school teacher, and she gets verbal abuse from her grandmother, which is finally explained in the last chapters of the book.

THE VERY ORDERED EXISTENCE OF MERILEE MARVELOUS is magical, and I am the better from reading this marvelous story.

Reviewed by: Marta Morrison

Merilee Monroe leads a Very Ordered Existence (V.O.E. for short). She's pretty much got everything in her semi-boring life in Jumbo, Texas all planned out, practically to the minute. For Merilee, there is no room for messing around, because that would only ruin her precise schedule. But what Merilee doesn't realize is that while she can try to control her life as best as she can, she can't stop others from intruding, namely little Biswick and big Veraleen. With these two newcomers to Jumbo, Merilee's V.O.E. has just about vanished. But although Merilee is upset about losing all the order in her life, it's through interacting with these two new friends that Merilee learns to love and be loved.

I have mixed feelings over The Very Ordered Existence of Merilee Marvelous. On the positive side, the story was cute and had a nice ending; on the other, much of the middle was lacking. It was hard for me to get into this story because, frankly, it was rather boring. There were times that I sympathized with some cruel treatment of Merilee, but then later I would forget because of the lackluster plot. One issue I had with Merilee was that I could never figure out how old she was; she was so precocious yet sometimes she seemed so immature, creating a unique but strange main character. Plus, Merilee's love for her V.O.E. seemed like a compulsion, bordering on a disorder, which would make it seem like she is one of those left-brained thinkers, but then Merilee also had an imagination when she liked to draw dragons. It was all a bit confusing, and I have to say that I preferred many of the minor characters, such as Biswick, to Merilee. There was a multitude of subplots, which sometimes kept the plot mildly interesting, but didn't help the story in the end because most of them were just left off in the middle of the story. The one possibly redeeming part of the story may have been Merilee's journey as she learned her place in the world, but unfortunately, this lesson came at the very end of a mediocre story.

In all, I would not recommend The Very Ordered Existence of Merilee Marvelous except to very patient readers, or readers who love wacky minor characters.