Savvy Communication Quotes

A hard truth sometimes can stunt communication—even though it's trying its hardest to communicate. It's interesting in the beginning of the book that Mibs does not want to communicate very much, especially with people outside of the family. How else is she going to make friends?

The more you know: the pastor is really just trying to bend the man to his will. Also, just because you're speaking at a higher volume, doesn't mean you're getting your thoughts across any better.

Poor Lester is really bad at communicating: he hasn't learned that standing up for yourself doesn't make you a mean person and that speaking your side is actually a really healthy and fun thing to do. And if we aren't clear, it's really rude to cut someone off when they're speaking.

This is a big moment for Mibs—she's just now getting her savvy. The problem is, though, that she wants her savvy to be waking things up, so she's going to spend the next several chapters denying the voices in her head (which, let's be real, is what a lot of sane people would do). This is a turning point in the story and the truth of the moment is something that Mibs needs to come to terms with and communicate with herself about… but if she didn't deny the voices in her head, most of the book wouldn't happen.

Communication isn't always just about spoken words—Samson is really great at making people feel at ease and like they are understood, which is what communication should do. Have you ever communicated a thought with a friend from across a room, just using your face? It's kind of like that. Samson is a pretty interesting character—normally the calming force in a story comes from an older character, but Samson is the youngster of the crowd. Which brings up an interesting question: How cool is Samson going to be when he grows up?

Notice the pattern with Lester? He allows too many people to tell him what he's doing wrong—he needs to learn to communicate with himself a lot more.

A speechless sixteen-year-old? We don't believe you. But for real, speaking as former sixteen-year-olds, they are actually pretty good at communicating—and telling everybody else what they've done wrong. What we're witnessing in this moment, though, is Bobbi growing as a teenager and as a person. Notice how she gets a lot nicer to everyone after this?

This is a seriously huge moment for Mibs and Bobbi. Not only are these two actually communicating, but they're doing it by using Mibs's savvy. Might these two actually become friends? Time will tell.

This is very telling about Lester: he's so beaten down by other people's opinions that he doesn't even have room for his own thoughts in his own head. This explains why he's the way he is in the beginning—working a job that someone else is making him do, that he doesn't like very much, and isn't very good at. is living someone else's opinions, because he doesn't value his own.

We've paid a whole lot of attention to the speaking part of communication, but listening is arguably the most important piece. Here Mibs shows that she understands now that listening to other people instead of assuming that you know what they're thinking, feeling, or believing is always the best course of action.