Frankie's World

In this graphic novel Frankie is a girl aged 11. She feels out of place, partly because she is unusually small for her age and is obliged to take remedial growth hormones. Sometimes she also says the wrong thing. Frankie lives with her mother, her stepfather and her younger sister. Frankie’s father has been missing from her life. She is desperate to find him. But it is not certain that she will find him, or if she does what the outcome of their meeting might be.

Frankie’s best friend is a girl named Sam who is a wheelchair user. Although Sam’s mobility is referred to in the novel, it never becomes a dominant issue. The book concentrates its energy on the quest that Frankie undertakes to find her father. However, two subsidiary issues deserve comment. As far as this reviewer is aware, Dooley is the first children’s author to deal explicitly with the issue of treatment for a lack of physical growth. In general disability is treated throughout the book as an issue that has to be handled and managed. At no point is disability allowed to loom large enough to define the whole of someone’s character or potential. Such attitudes towards disability and disabled people are increasingly common in books by thoughtful authors. Nevertheless it is still pleasant to encounter such a treatment.