It's Marvelous Middle Grade Monday with a review of Not Lucille by Mike Steele

Not Lucille by Mike Steele
Publisher:  Creative James Media
Format Read:  E-book
Number of pages:   254 pages
Published:  June 24th, 2025
Source:  Author in exchange for an honest review

Opening Lines: "Rumor at Robbins Elementary was that from the windows on the top floor of the building, you could see the whole city of Trenton and across the New Jersey side of the Delaware River to Pennsylvania."

10-year-old Lucy Contento is thrilled for the first day of fifth grade and rushes out early, eager to check out the view from her new classroom.  Both Lucy and her best friend, Ann Salvatore, find themselves in Miss Gillingham's class, the teacher with the strictest reputation at school.  Ann takes the news in stride, but Lucy, who often finds herself in trouble, dreads the possibility of drawing Miss Gillingham's attention.  However, just as Lucy anticipated, everything goes wrong.    She forgets to raise her hand, wiggles in her seat, writes with her left hand not her right, and gets caught daydreaming, landing herself in afterschool detention.

After serving her detention, Lucy decides to take a shortcut through the nearby Trenton Academy for the Deaf to quickly meet up with her friends.  However, she gets sidetracked when she notices a girl sitting alone in a room.  Curious about the girl, Lucy starts sneaking onto the campus, even resorting to telling lies to cover up her trespassing.  Lucy soon starts meeting daily with Florence, a lonely girl her age.  Florence teaches Lucy about lip reading and a few signs and even shares how frustrated she is about not being able to speak as clearly as she wants.  Lucy really hopes to be able to learn sign language to communicate with Florence better, she even tries to locate a dictionary to learn sign language faster, but her family doesn't have the funds for her to spend on a book.  Can Lucy manage to juggle all her secrets while keeping her daily visits with Florence hidden from her parents and friends? 

Lucy is a sweet girl who despite her best intentions tends to get in trouble in Miss Gillingham's class.  She tries hard to sit quietly and to remember to use her right hand when she's writing.  Her teacher has an extensive list of rules for what to do and what not to do in her class, but not all of Lucy's mishaps are her fault.  Miss Gillingham insists on calling her Lucille instead of her given name, Lucy.  Concetta's constant cheating off her paper also makes Lucy speak out of turn.  It's no wonder that her frustration at school begins to bubble up to the surface leading her to an unfortunate outburst.  

Lucy's home life adds to her discomfort. Her family recently had to downsize to a place half the size of their previous rental. She now shares a room with her younger brother, and there's stress at home since her dad lost his job, with everyone trying to save money to cover the rent.  Lucy's home life was one of the highlights of reading the story for me.  I love how the emphasis is on the family having meals together, going to church and watching television together.  How everyone tries to pitch in, despite their father's desires for them to not give up on their education.  Lucy's parents have strong morals and try to instill them in their children.    

Florence is such a great friend to Lucy, always patient and kind while teaching her how to sign. She even motivates Lucy to try writing with her right hand. Their interactions remind me so much of my child's early kindergarten days. My child started out ambidextrous, easily switching between their right and left hand for most tasks, but unlike Lucy, they were encouraged to choose a hand for writing not told that they had to write with their right hand only.  How frustrating that must be. 

I also empathize with Florence’s struggle over whether to focus solely on learning American Sign Language (ASL) or to pursue spoken language as well. It’s a deeply personal and complex choice. I truly appreciate that the author worked with sensitivity readers to ensure Lucy’s deaf representation was portrayed with care and authenticity.  Overall, Not Lucille is a beautiful story about a lesser-known time period.  The characters read realistic, and the story is both informative while entertaining.  Finally, I really like stories that surprise me, and I loved how Miss Gillingham finally began to show her compassion for teaching and true desire to help her students to be successful.  

 I hope you'll check out all the other Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday posts at Greg Pattridge's blog HERE      

** A heartfelt thank you to Mike Steele for reaching out me about the possibility of a review and for generously providing me with an e-book.  Given my background in speech-language pathology and previous desire to work at a School for the Deaf, I was genuinely delighted while reading this book. **