Mary Marony Hides Out by Suzy Kline

Mary Marony Hides Out is a short novel/chapter book that is about eighty pages in length. The narrative is about a young student, Mary Marony, who loves reading and finally gets a chance to meet her favorite author, Jan Berry, when she comes to visit Mary's school. The main character, Mary, has a stuttering problem and sometimes gets made fun of at school. I thought this was an interesting aspect of the story because so often the main character in childrens books is a completely unflawed "perfect" boy or girl. Mary, however, struggles with her speech impediment and has to deal with getting made fun of at school. Also, Mary sees a speech therapist at school. I also liked this portion of the book because so many children receive special education and/or extra help at school. However, childrens books so rarely depict that side of education and children. The book also makes good use of simplistic black and white illustrations to help compliment the storyline. I also enjoyed the fact that the book reolves around Mary's love of reading and her favorite author. I think it helps to encourage children to read when they themselves read about a character in a book that already has a passion for reading and literature. The ending of the novel is very encouraging and fit well with the story. In summary, I would definetely recommend this book and I throughoughly enjoyed it.