This is an endearing, inspirational tale of an 11-year-old abecedarian from South Central Los Angeles who wins her middle-school contest. She can’t imagine that she’ll advance to the regionals, let alone the nationals, of what might be called the Orthographic Olympics.

Rating: 3 out of 4 stars. Running time: 1 hour, 52 minutes. Rated: PG for language

– by Carrie Rickey, Knight Ridder Newspapers