Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus
Ratings22
Average rating4.2
This has been a really popular choice off the local schools' summer reading list for the last couple years, so I wanted to check it out to be familiar with it but I was also nervous about it being like Wonder-style disability inspiration porn, and I was pleasantly surprised! Aven's voice is so funny and sharp (aided by the good audiobook narrator) but I loved that we could see her complexity–someone who has been raised to advocate for herself and her friends but also someone capable of pushing someone too hard and getting in someone's business in a way that's not helpful. I do think that yes, it's a good one for a school reading because of the way it models inclusivity. But also, it's funny and the mystery aspect will keep kids reading.
This book was really well done in terms of including the practical details of how a person without arms uses their feet for tasks where a hand-having person uses hands. The one detail I missed, if it was included, was where a guitar was positioned in order to play with feet, but a quick YouTube search for “play guitar without arms” showed me that a guitar would be laid on the ground while the performer sat in a chair.
This book does a great job at showing the struggles a person without arms encounters, and how it is primarily from society: not only social devaluation (stigmatization of feet as dirty and gross, being judged as missing something) but also in terms of how everyday objects like books and clothing fasteners are designed to be manipulated by hands rather than feet. I started imagining how everyday objects, like guitars or door handles, might be designed differently if they were intended to be manipulated by feet. There are doors designed to be opened by pressing a low handle (for wheelchair users, but easier to reach for a foot than one at the height of an ambulatory person's hands), and foot-flush toilets (common in RVs), but not much else.
The description of the time it takes Aven to get dressed made me think about how difficult it would be to grip buttons and zippers with toes and get even one leg through a pair of jeans, so I wonder if a society of armless people would have favored stretchy/flowy elastic-waistband bottoms for everyday wear instead of stiff-material bottoms with fasteners at the waist.
The fight Aven has over the meaning of being called “disabled” felt very real, and I appreciated her mom's advice that “disabled” didn't have to mean “incapable” because like all people with disabilities, I've had to learn that disability is a value-neutral description of my experiences rather than a putdown or defeatist term. Though I would have liked Aven's mom to not speak as if disability was a word that holds people back from their potential—it the world being designed for people with arms that holds Aven back, not the naming of that phenomenon. The mention of possible early arthritis in her hips and toes from using her feet for high-dexterity tasks is not a fully social element of disability, but it is one that would be less severe in a society that anticipated it by default. I look forward to seeing Aven develop a more nuanced understanding of the concept of disability in the next book.
What an adorable story. This middle grade mystery is fast paced and character driven.
Aven has to move from the town in Kansas where she has spent her whole life (that she can remember) because her parents got a new job. Because she starts at a new school, she has to deal with re-introducing everyone to her disability (no arms). She is tough and resilient. She befriends a boy with Tourette's and an overweight boy. Together, they learn about the hard parts and good parts of friendship and get a little brave. And, they solve a mystery...but not the one they thought they were solving.
Setting: Kansas (nondescript), desert Arizona (some detail)
Characters: mostly children with disabilities but also adults pay supporting roles
POV character: young, female, adopted, no arms
Topics: disability, bullying, belonging, adoption (but the adopted child is not actively seeking birth parents)
Tone: curious, bold, lighthearted
a lovely book about disabilities!
It would be a nice book to give to a child (8-13) to teach them about respecting people with disabilities (aka people are more than their disabilities)
I preordered the second book but found the audiobook for it already and I cant wait to listen to it tonight! :)
Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus is a quick fun read. It made me laugh, it made me tear up, it made me think. I loved Aven, Conner and Zion. I can't wait to read the next book to share in more adventures with them.
Aven is differently abled, but don't call her disabled. Who cares that she was born without arms, she can do anything she wants! Even if it takes just a little longer than most people. But things take a turn when she enters middle school and her parents announce they are moving to Arizona to run an old-timey theme park, and she'll have to start over with making friends.
This is a sweet middle-grade story that ultimately didn't feel that young, in my opinion (aka no one should be turned off by this being a middle-grade read). I loved getting immersed in Aven's world and the Stagecoach Pass park. People can be cruel to those who are different, but Aven and her new friends Zion and Connor (who has Tourette's) just live their lives, and spend their time trying to find out who the enigmatic owner of Stagecoach Pass is ... and why he's been missing for over a decade. They help each other and occasionally hurt each other with their own perceived deficiencies, and it was real and relatable and wonderful.
Loved the audiobook, fantastic.
