Akeelah and the Bee – a review

I saw this movie advertised on Netflix and thought it might be a good movie for my family and perhaps spark some enthusiasm for spelling! My boys have inherited their father’s creative spelling gene and don’t seem overly concerned with learning formal spelling patterns. And although we drill and drill, it’s hard to get them to appreciate spelling for its own sake.

This movie was just the ticket. It’s about a gifted speller, 11-year-old Akeelah who lives in an underprivileged neighborhood in Southern California. Akeelah keeps her gift to herself because she does not want the other kids at school to tease her for being smart. She also doesn’t see much point in sitting through her other classes or doing her homework. A savvy teacher and a supportive principal encourage her to compete for the school spelling bee and for the city and then regionals. Her overworked single mother eventually gets with the program and with the aid of a gifted professor and the support of the entire community, Akeelah makes it to the National Spelling Bee!

What I loved about the movie is that they spent a lot of time emphasizing the importance of words written in the beautiful context of prose and literature. Akeelah comes to understand how little words make big words and how knowing Latin and Greek roots can make spelling easier.

The movie is fast paced and it definitely has its tense moments which kept my kids on the edge of their seats, entertained and engaged. (I think they were surprised at how many of the words I could actually spell, but many of them were medical words that I transcribe regularly!)

I don’t know if it had an impact, but I do know that when I brought out Spelling Power,
today, the moans and groans were minimal, Sam asked if he should consider Latin and Noah thought he could pass a local spelling bee – we’ll see!

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