The Outsmarters

by Deborah Ellis

Overview

What can you do when the adult world lets you down?

Suspended from school and prone to rages, twelve-year-old Kate finds her own way to get on with her life, despite the messed-up adults around her. Her gran, for one, is stubborn and aloof — not unlike Kate herself, who has no friends, and who’s been expelled for “behavioral issues,” like the meltdowns she has had ever since her mom dumped her with her grandmother three years ago. Kate dreams that one day her mother will return for her. When that happens, they’ll need money, so Kate sets out to make some.

Gran nixes her idea to sell psychiatric advice like Lucy in Peanuts (“You’re not a psychiatrist. You’ll get sued.”), so Kate decides to open a philosophy booth to provide answers to life’s big and small questions. She soon learns that adults have plenty of problems and secrets of their own, including Gran. When she finds that her grandmother has been lying to her about her mother, the two have a huge fight, and Gran says she can’t wait for Kate to finish high school so she’ll be rid of her at last. Kate decides to take matters into her own hands and discovers that to get what she wants, she may have to reach out to some unexpected people, and find a way to lay down her own anger.

Key Text Features

quotations

dialogue

literary references

signs

Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.2
Determine a theme or central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.5
Analyze how a particular sentence, chapter, scene, or stanza fits into the overall structure of a text and contributes to the development of the theme, setting, or plot.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781773068572
Publisher:	Groundwood Books
Publication date:	08/06/2024
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.50(h) x 0.00(d)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

DEBORAH ELLIS is the author of The Breadwinner, which has been published in thirty languages. She has won the Governor General’s Award, the Middle East Book Award, the Peter Pan Prize, the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award and the Vicky Metcalf Award. A recipient of the Order of Canada, Deborah has donated more than $2 million in royalties to organizations such as Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan, Mental Health Without Borders and the UNHCR. She lives in Simcoe, Ontario.

Read an Excerpt

I fetch an old shoebox from the back of the crawl space and climb up on my bed.

I open the box.

Inside: A collection of pictures of fancy bedrooms clipped from magazines and held together with a paperclip. An incomplete math test with a big red F at the top and big red curse words where there should have been a Venn diagram. One long pink and orange sock and one hair elastic with dark blue bobbles on it.

These were my mother’s things …

Also in the box — three small wooden puzzles, the kind with the small pieces that fit together only one way to make a cube or an egg. These are the puzzles I had in my pockets when Mom dumped me here. She was always getting them for me because they were easy to steal …

I put the six dollars in the shoebox … put the box under my bed and then sit by my window and look at my philosophy booth.

When Mom comes back for me — and she will — I’ll have a ton of money saved.

Then she can dump whatever jackass boyfriend is with her and just be with me.

Editorial Reviews

★ 05/27/2024

When 12-year-old Kate was nine, her single mother “dumped” her with her gran who runs “the largest junk business in the tri-county area” of Canada, where Ellis (One More Mountain) sets this absorbing, smartly paced novel. Kate’s struggles managing her anger and destructive behavior meet a worthy opponent in Gran, whose severity and sharp tongue force Kate to learn to control her temper. Certain her mother will return for her, Kate opens a Philosophic Help booth on the junkyard grounds to earn money, and counsels customers with quotations from eminent thinkers such as the ancient Greeks, Anne Frank, and Toni Morrison. Feeling betrayed by adults and peers, Kate decides to “be powerful in the service of my vision.” The narrative follows Kate as she makes unlikely allies in pursuing said vision: to pass the GED and leave school. Along the way, Ellis reveals moments from Kate’s past that detail the emotional and physical abuse inflicted upon her. Narrated in Kate’s tough yet sympathetic voice and replete with complex characters navigating difficult issues, this hard-hitting, hopeful story also holds warmhearted moments of friendship and community, which are even more powerful for being hard-won. Major characters read as white. Ages 10–13. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

The Outsmarters is an encouraging look at how hard work can bring about second chances.

CM: Canadian Review of Materials

★ 07/01/2024

Gr 5 Up—Award-winning author Ellis offers an emotional, inspirational, and relatable story about 12-year-old Kate, who is devastated when her mother unexpectedly drops her off to live with her grandmother, a cantankerous junk store owner with whom she has a complicated relationship. Spunky and resilient Kate uses junk from Gran's store to launch a philosophy business selling famous quotes from an eclectic group of writers and philosophers, including Audre Lorde and Albert Camus. Initially, Kate finds it difficult to interact with her customers due to her anger management issues, distrust of people, and fear that she is disliked. But, as the philosophical quotes help her customers honestly see themselves, the interactions also help Kate begin to understand herself and what she wants from her life. With this newfound insight Kate begins to advocate for those who can't fight for themselves while also opening herself up to new relationships and experiences, helping her to make unexpected friendships and connections. Complex issues such as drug abuse, grief, and family secrets are explored with empathy through the authentic experience of an engaging young girl whom readers will relate to and root for. This title would be a great choice to facilitate book club discussions, and school counselors could also find it helpful for therapy groups. VERDICT A compelling and poignant book that celebrates a courageous young girl's journey toward growing up.—Margaret Auguste

School Library Journal

2024-05-04
Kate’s advice booth is gaining traction, but keeping her anger in check can be challenging in a small Canadian town steeped in secrets and where people’s assumptions can feel limiting.

Twelve-year-old Kate has lived with her irascible grandmother for several years. She does chores at Gran’s business (the Junk Yard) and yard work for neighbors—though she chafes at Gran’s habit of teaching her real-world lessons by taking a hefty cut of her earnings. Still, Kate decides it’s worth renting an old shed on Gran’s property for her summer money-making idea, and she distributes flyers announcing “PHILOSOPHIC HELP / Get answers to life’s questions from History’s Greatest Thinkers. / $2 per question.” Kate leans on anger-management techniques from a ’70s publication called Get Back to Groovy, scavenges usable cast-offs in the Absolutely Unsellables back lot, and finds solace among friends who are grappling with their own issues. Kate’s increasing desire to understand her past heightens Gran’s fears about the possible effect of Mom’s dysfunction should she reenter Kate’s life. Kate’s first-person narration allows her quirky, perceptive, and wryly funny worldview to shine. The main characters are richly drawn, while a couple of the baddies are more one-note evil. Ellis deftly presents subplots that explore serious and troubling themes without minimizing their impact or unseating Kate as the center of the story as the various strands converge in a hopeful ending. Most characters read white.

An insightful young person makes a powerful difference in this emotionally astute work. (Fiction. 10-13)

Kirkus Reviews