Middle Grade Review: Summerlost, by Ally Condie

What? Monday again? I'm lobbying for an extra day to be inserted between Sunday and Monday, because I never quite seem to get to Monday morning on time.  So, just a few hours late, here's my Monday review!


 
Title: Summerlost

Author: Ally Condie 
Publisher: Dutton Books for Young Readers, 2016, 272 pages
Source: Library

Publisher's Summary:
It's the first real summer since the devastating accident that killed Cedar's father and younger brother, Ben. But now Cedar and what’s left of her family are returning to the town of Iron Creek for the summer. They’re just settling into their new house when a boy named Leo, dressed in costume, rides by on his bike. Intrigued, Cedar follows him to the renowned Summerlost theatre festival. Soon, she not only has a new friend in Leo and a job working concessions at the festival, she finds herself surrounded by mystery. The mystery of the tragic, too-short life of the Hollywood actress who haunts the halls of Summerlost. And the mystery of the strange gifts that keep appearing for Cedar.
My  Review:
This book has a beautiful cover, and in many ways the book is just as beautiful. Well-written and engaging, it caught me up quickly in the young narrator's struggle to recover from a devastating loss. I liked the easy friendship with Leo; the two join forces quickly and smoothly in the way kids sometimes do at summer camp or on holiday. That includes not asking many questions about each other, so that it takes Cedar some time to even think to wonder what makes Leo tick. (Utterly irrelevant aside: I really like the name Cedar. I could have put that on the short list if we'd had a girl.)

I liked that once Cedar gets started, we find that Leo has his own depths. Not tragic, like hers (which he knows about; Iron Creek is a small town and everyone knows about her loss), but he's a fully-rounded human with his own struggles. This makes their friendship feel real, not just a convenience for the author or for Cedar. The pair are certainly motivated, and if I'm a little dubious about the legality of 12-year-olds holding a regular job, (very minor spoiler alert!) the kids and the author know that their extra business is going to get them in trouble, as it does, so that part is realistic enough. The kiddie employment was one element that made me at first think this book had a historical setting, but it doesn't seem to (though come to think of it, the kids don't have cell phones or computers, so maybe it does hark back to a little earlier time. The author makes no effort to nail down a sense of time, and the small-town setting helps it feel like anything from the 50s up).

Probably my only issue with the book was my jaded sense of "here's another kid's book about death and loss," due to a recent run of books on those lines. That's scarcely the book's fault, though I do think the trope is getting a bit overused. Oddly, there was an autism element in this one, too--the lost brother was autistic, and that adds an interesting layer to Cedar's grief, without being a story-line gimmick. It's also interesting to see how Cedar, her mother, and her little brother Miles all deal with their loss. Though Miles seems a fairly static character through most of the book, in the end we see that he, too, is working things out. Nor is there any magic healing at the end. Grief isn't a process with a finish line. These three have simply made it through another summer.

Recommendation:
Perfect for ages 9 or 10 and up. The language is good, the writing, as noted, is excellent, and I think the story is equally engaging for girls or boys. It's not a tear-jerker--that grief is in the past--but it is certainly a moving book as well as at times a lot of fun, with kids who are taking some responsibility for their own lives.

FTC Disclosure: I checked Summerlost out of my library, and received nothing from the writer or publisher in exchange for my honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising." 

Middle Grade Monday and Kid Lit Blog Hop

It's been a while since I managed to hook up with the Kid Lit Blog Hop, but here I go. Click on the image above to see the links to other blogs covering books for children!

And now for my review:

Title: Replay
Author: Sharon Creech
Publisher: Harper Collins, 2009. 136 pages (per my Nook)
Source: Library (digital services)

Publisher's Summary: 
With the backdrop of a large family and a theater as its frame, this is a story about twelve-year-old Leo, who has a talent for transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary. That's why he's called "fog boy." He's always dreaming, always replaying things in his brain. As an actor in the school play, he is poised and ready for the curtain to open. But in the play that is his life, he is eager to discover what part will be his.

With the universal theme of finding one's true identity, and set amid a loud, noisy, memorable family, Leo's story is one that all kids will relate to. And there's a full play at the end of the book that kids and teachers can perform! 

My Review:
I expect Sharon Creech to provide me with a good read that's also thoughtful and thought-provoking, and Replay did not disappoint. Creech beautifully captures Leo's sense of being the odd one out in his family, the kid who's no good at sports and spends too much time daydreaming. Leo is 12, on that awkward brink between little kid and teen, and he's struggling with a sense of identity. It doesn't help that he's the second of four kids, and his siblings all call him by not-so-flattering nicknames like "Fog Boy," which may be accurate (he does tend to get lost in the fog of his imaginings) but isn't helpful or kind.

I liked, though, that in the end we see that Leo's family isn't icky and disfunctional. They are perfectly normal, dealing with a lot of normal stresses, some worse than those faced by others, some less so. It's just that Leo is at that point in his life when it all feels uncomfortable, like he doesn't know how to fit anymore. He likes to imagine himself doing great and grand things, because he doesn't feel like he is seen by his family, but in fact when he does his part in the school play and does it well, they are there and see it and give him the applause he needs.

This is a very short and easy-to-read story, especially if one discounts the play that follows (it is the play that Leo's class puts on, and it's subject is definitely relevant to the book, so worth reading), but as usual, Creech manages to capture a whole story and present it well. There were also some very funny lines, though I always wonder when I laugh aloud at a children's book if the kids will laugh in the same place.

Recommendation:
This might be particularly relevant for middle-school boys (and girls), but it will be accessible and of interest to kids from about 8 up, with nothing a younger child shouldn't read. There is no romance for Leo, just a healthy friendship that we see move to a more mature level, and in the end we see Leo getting the space and the support he needs to grow up.

Full Disclosure: I checked Replay out of my library, and received nothing from the writer or publisher in exchange for my honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."  

Final week of the 99-cent sale!

Middle Grade Review: Dear Papa, by Anne Ylvisaker

Title: Dear Papa
Author: Anna Ylvisaker
Publisher: Candlewick Press, 2007, 192 pages
Source: Library

Summary:
When the book opens Isabelle is 9, and learning to write letters at school.  She chooses to write to her dead Papa, because she sometimes feels like she's the only one who thinks about him.  To make it worse, her mother sends her and her older sisters to live with relatives, which feels to the 9-year-old like a total rejection.

Eventually, Isabelle writes to her Aunt Isabelle, her sisters and brother, and her friends, as well as her Papa.  But the whole story is told in her letters--letters written over a span of years, though the bulk of the story takes place between ages 9 and 12.

Set during WWII, the story reflects its time, but it is ultimately the story of a girl growing up, not of a country at war.

Review:
The epistolary format makes this book a quick read, but that doesn't mean it's shallow.  I think that the author captures nicely Isabelle's sense of isolation, her fears, and above all her in-the-middle place in the family.  Her older sisters are old enough to be realistic about their father's death and the fact that there mother is moving on--must move on.  Her younger brother and sister are young enough to quickly forget their father, except in a vague sort of way.  To Isabelle, all these are betrayals.

The author does a great job of letting the reader see and understand more than Isabelle does, even though all the words are hers.  Though I think a child reading this would be much more likely to take characters (like the new man in her mother's life) at Isabelle's reading of them, at least as an adult I could see that there was more depth there than she credits.

Recommendation:
A decent, though not exceptional read, and good for those who enjoy historical fiction and coming-of-age novels.

Full Disclosure: I checked  Dear Papa  out of my library, and received nothing from the writer or publisher in exchange for my honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."