Get A Grip, Vivy Cohen

Epistolary is one of those forms that brings out strong opinions. You either love it or you hate it. As a writer, I’ve never attempted to go anywhere near it. I prefer to address my readers directly if I’m going to have any sort of narrative framing. As a reader, I find that I’m willing to give it a try but it takes more than usual for books written this way to hook me. When I picked up Get A Grip, Vivy Cohen by Sarah Kapit I was really curious to see how middle grade readers would interact with this particular format.

Vivy is an autistic girl that starts writing letters to her favorite pitcher, VJ Capello, as part of her social skills group. Although Vivy hates social skills group, she does enjoy writing to VJ and continues to send him letters even after the exercise is over. She describes how she wants to learn to throw a knuckleball just like VJ does and how she wishes she could play in a real game. Wonder of wonder – VJ actually writes back! With approval from Vivy’s father, the two become pen pals just as Vivy convinces her parents to let her play in the Orange League. Meanwhile, VJ struggles to recover from a devastating World Series loss that he refuses to discuss with anyone – including Vivy.

Although they are at quite different stages in their lives, Vivy and VJ share several things. As a Jewish, autistic, girl Vivy is facing some severe bullying from members of her team. VJ tells her he has faced a large amount of discrimination too as an ivy league educated, black, knuckleballer. They are also both having disastrous seasons. They want to support each other, but there are the usual miscommunications between an adult an a child, and both must learn to actually listen to what the other is saying for things to get back on track.

I find it a little frustrating to keep having to look at the dates and headers on letters to place myself in time and space. But that’s just me. I struggle with any form of nonstandard prose formatting, including verse. The children I surveyed generally said it was harder for them to get invested – mostly because it takes several of Vivy’s letters before VJ responds – but by the middle they were hooked. I also found that children enjoyed the baseball plot regardless of any prior experience, or lack thereof, with the sport.

There is a romance and coming out subplot, but it is not Vivy’s. She makes a terrific friend in her catcher and they remain firmly platonic even when teased by his sister. Instead, we see Vivy’s brother becoming more and more distant from her because he is dating someone. When he finally explains that this is because he is gay and was still deciding how to come out to his family, Vivy’s response feels so wonderfully encapsulating of how she relates to the world. Some small things, like having her hair pulled, cause a complete meltdown. Yet this knowledge doesn’t change the way she feels about her brother at all. She’s just glad to be seeing more of him.

Again, a poll of the middle graders on this topic was varied. For many, the whole thing whooshed right over their heads, or they skipped it because they aren’t into “the kissy stuff.” That’s fair enough, and the plot was largely focused on baseball, because I suspect Vivy is also not a fan of the kissy stuff. She wants to play ball and we spend the bulk of the story working towards that goal with her.

Overall, the format gave me some trouble due to my own limitations, but I was so intrigued by Vivy and VJ that I was able to read this book very quickly. The middle schoolers averaged 2 days from start to completion. I think that’s what we call a home run.

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