A review by judyward
She Got Up Off the Couch: And Other Heroic Acts from Mooreland, Indiana by Haven Kimmel

5.0

Haven Kimmel has done it again. I loved A Girl Named Zippy and this book, I think, is even better. Written in the same voice as the previous book, Zippy continues her adventures growing up in tiny Moreland, Indiana where everyone knows your name and, unfortunately, your business. Much of this book, however, is a tribute to her mother who, in the last book, was spending the majority of her time sitting on the end of the couch reading, watching television, and talking on the telephone to members of her prayer group in her local Friends church. Receiving, she believes, a sign from God (given through the timing of a commercial on television), she takes the CLEP test, enters college, graduates with a perfect 4.0 average, earns a Master's degree, and becomes a English teacher in Moreland's high school. And what odds Zippy's mother has to overcome. She weighs close to 300 pounds, is missing a significant number of teeth, doesn't have either a car or a driver's license, doesn't have the money to go to college, and her husband is resentful that she has "gotten up off the couch". And yet she does it. While celebrating the power of her mother's will to change her life, this book has a darker side than A Girl Named Zippy. As her mother finds her voice and becomes the primary breadwinner for the Jarvis family, there are ramifications that ripple throughout the entire family.