Bertie Stewart is Perfectly Imperfect

Bertie’s best and only friend is Kevin. Her grandmother lives close by, and they love to visit her, eat cookies and play games. Bertie shares a room with her older sister, Sally, who seems to be her opposite. Her dad works from home, her stepmother, Denise, is a busy lawyer, and Bertie also has a little brother, Bradley. Bertie’s favourite escape place is the park where she loves to climb an old maple tree. All of this appears like a common situation for a grade six girl. But when Bertie’s teachers assign a public speaking assignment and she is partnered with her worst enemy, she is overwhelmed. No one knows about her inside voice constantly telling her all the things that could go bad or had gone bad in the past. Bertie realizes it’s not just that voice that is causing her such anxiety. The real issue is a secret that she has kept inside for so long and can no longer hold in.

The journey through childhood and adolescence is filled with life changes and challenges. Navigating through the different stages of growing up involves developing coping mechanisms to deal with a variety of fears, anxieties and disappointments. Melanie Mosher, a TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award shortlisted author, addresses this journey in her middle years novel Bertie Stewart’s Perfectly Imperfect. The story begins with Bertie, short for Bertha, facing a daunting grade six public speaking assignment. But there’s a lot more going on than a school speaking event.

Bertie Stewart’s Perfectly Imperfect is filled with numerous problems including friendship, peer competition, a blended family, self image, sibling conflict, and loss. The author has included a seemingly overwhelming range of challenges for the main character. But whether it is the number or the combination, Bertie’s anxiety escalates. Fortunately the flow of the narrative introduces the fears and anxieties gradually. Perhaps the purpose of including numerous issues is to provide the middle years readers with a wide selection of real life situations with which they might relate.

This novel guides the adolescent reader through a heartfelt story that illustrates the process and the twists and turns of coping with anxieties. The clever characterization creates a realistic mixture of people with whom Bertie interacts; classmates, a best friend, a loving grandmother, teachers and family members. The fact that there is not a ‘happy ever after’ ending adds a realism to the book. Rather, the story ends with not only Bertie’s receiving positive help in dealing with anxiety but also with a new awareness among her family members and friends of important issues that need to be addressed together.