Donny and Mary Grace’s California Adventures is a fictional book written by Catherine Anna Pepe that is centered on the story of an adventure involving a 5-year-old boy called Donny, who suffers from Down syndrome and his sister, Mary Grace. The book starts with a family visit to a zoo in Wichita, Kansas. When they were at the penguins’ exhibit, Donny got lost. They all searched for him and found him on a train. The children’s father, Mr. Miller, was a priest at St. James Episcopal Church while their mother, Mrs. Miller, was a civil engineer. Due to the fun they had at the zoo, they visited again after a while. At some point, the parents are assigned by the church to work in Africa as missionaries for two years. Then, it is decided that Donny and Mary Grace will move to California to live with their grandparents, Grandma Cathy and Papa Steve. In Chapters 4 and 5, the parents convinced the children that life in California would be fun, but Mary Grace was not happy about that. Despite her reluctance, the family packed their bags ready to move to California for the children and Africa for the parents. In chapter 6, Mary Grace wrote down the things she would miss in Wichita. What followed next was their flight to California where Donny said, “This is the best day of my life!” both at the airport and on the plane. When they landed in California, Grandma Cathy told Mary Grace the story of how she and her two friends, La Shana Jackson and Elizabeth, helped Lyndsey to solve a mysterious case involving break-ins at the 7-Eleven store. The grandparents took them to the ranch and later, the children joined North Elementary School. At school, however, a bullying incident emerged, whereby some notes threatening Donny and her sister were left at Mary Grace’s desk in class. As teachers and Grandma Cathy tried to solve the issue, Mary Grace came up with the idea of using a suggestion box, which helped them discover that Tiffany Johnson and Justin Green were the ones involved in the bullying incident. Tiffany and Justin were suspended from school for a few days. In the end, joining the Grandma Gang, going to the zoo in California, and solving mysteries made Mary Grace stop hating California and started liking it.
One of the things I liked about the book is that the author made the setting very clear in each chapter. For example, from Chapters 1 to 4, most of the action is at home, at the zoo, and at school in Wichita. From Chapter 5 onwards, the setting is in California, at the ranch, Gigi’s condo, and North Elementary School. Another interesting thing is that Catherine perfectly made this work of fiction seem like it was real. In real life, the author had a brother called Donny who had Down syndrome, and that is why the whole story is inspired by her living with him and the rest of the family. Also, it is not a coincidence that the fictional Grandma Cathy is a retired lawyer and the real author, Catherine is a retired judge too. I also liked the book because the stories or else mysteries first bring intense emotions and then, at that moment, when you worry that a bad thing is about to happen, a good thing happens. Then, there is relief followed by fun and laughter. For example, when Donny got lost at the zoo, everyone got worried that he could be in danger, but eventually, they found him. They all became happy and made those funny penguin moves and dances. Lastly, I liked how the drawing of pictures at the beginning of some chapters hinted at the topic of discussion in that chapter. The pictures of a penguin, marbles, the window of a plane, and a paper-made Lotus flower among others are all elegant.
Catherine and her team of drafters and editors seem to have thoroughly proofread the book because it has no grammar mistakes. Also, there is no other negative aspect of the book.
I would give the book a rating of 5 out of 5 stars because there are many positive aspects against zero negative aspects. Also, the book is exceptionally well-edited.
I would recommend the book to children because the story involves Donny and Mary Grace who are both school-going children. I suppose that is why the author used simple English that can easily be understood by elementary school children. Also, the book can be insightful to children with special needs, along with their parents and teachers. Parents can learn how to live with children with disabilities at home while the teachers can learn from the book regarding how to deal with bullying at school.
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