Ah, Sweet Summer!

 "Be like the flower, turn your face to the sun."

-Kahlil Gibran

Poem: What I Love About Summer by Douglas Florian

This is a wonderful example of a "LIST" poem:

What I Love About Summer

Morning glories

Campfire stories

Picking cherries

And blueberries

Riding bikes

Mountain hikes

Bird calls

Curve balls

Short sleeves

Green leaves

Swimming holes

Fishing poles

Nature walks

Corn stalks

Skipping stones

Ice cream cones

Double plays

And barefoot days.

                                Douglas Florian

                                from Summersaults (Florian)

24. The Summer I Saved the World in 65 Days - Michele Weber Hurwitz

2014, Wendy Lamb Books: Random House

266 pgs.

Written for middle grades/YA

Finished 5/6/2014

Contemporary Realistic Fiction

Goodreads Rating: 4.26

My Rating: 4-Liked it a lot, great story

TPPL

Setting: contemporary anytown, USA

1^st sentence/s:  "It starts with Mrs. Chung.  And flowers.  Marigolds."

My comments:  The summer after 8th grade. I liked this book very much, with only one drawback.  The protagonist, Nina, was a sweetheart - much like many of the girls of that age I've had the pleasure to know.  Her closest friends, Eli and Jorie, live in her cul de sac.  But she has no other friends?  This is impossible to wrap my mind around, which kept me outside the book a little, wondering why the author decided to do this..... Other than that, I enjoyed the story very, very much.

Becky's review from Becky's Book Reviews

Goodreads Review:  It's summertime, and thirteen-year-old Nina Ross is feeling kind of lost. Her beloved grandma died last year; her parents work all the time; her brother's busy; and her best friend is into clothes, makeup, and boys. While Nina doesn't know what "her thing" is yet, it's definitely not shopping and makeup. And it's not boys, either. Though . . . has Eli, the boy next door, always been so cute?
             This summer, Nina decides to change things. She hatches a plan. There are sixty-five days of summer. Every day, she'll anonymously do one small but remarkable good thing for someone in her neighborhood, and find out: does doing good actually make a difference? Along the way, she discovers that her neighborhood, and her family, are full of surprises and secrets.
             In this bighearted, sweetly romantic novel, things may not turn out exactly as Nina expects. They might be better.

46. The Beach House - Jane Green

Audio read by Cassandra Campbell
Penguin Audio, 2008
9 unabridged cds
11 hours
352 pgs.
Rating:  4

Setting:  Nantucket

One-sentence summary:  A small cast of characters rent rooms in Nan Powell's "Windemere" one summer, creating a family of sorts:  Daniel, newly divorced and just out-of-the-closet; Daff and her13-year-old daughter, Jess, who is trying to deal with her parents' divorce; Michael, Nan's son, home to Nantucket from NYC and a troublesome affair with his boss.

This is a feel-good book with a happy ending.  Everyone needs one of these once in awhile, and it was read so beautifully that I looked forward to just listening to the words wrapping around me.  Cassandra Campbell has a lovely voice and puts just enough special inflection and personality into the voice of each character that you can tell them apart instantly.

You really get to know the characters, including the exes and dead .  Green makes sure we get a sampling of every part of life and death, joy and sadness, euphoria and misery, uncertainty and despair.  Yup, she's wrapped it all up in this one story.  It was a good "listen."

36. A Million Miles from Boston - Karen Day

Wendy Lamb Books, Random House, 2011
HC $15.99
for:  kids
genre:  CRF
218 pgs.
Rating:  4 (as a kid I would have loved this story)

Setting:  Southern coast of Maine, contemporary summertime

One Sentence Summary:  Lucy can't wait to spend her summer at the family cottage on the southern Maine coast, but is chagrined to discover a disliked (male!) classmate is also going to summer there, and her widowed father wants his girlfriend to visit.

The story centers on Lucy, the longing she feels for her dead mother, the responsibility she feels for her family, the unsettled feelings she has both toward her father's girlfriend, who's really very nice, and Ian Richards, a schoolmate who she's caught lying and who has gotten her in trouble more than once.  She helps take care of her younger brother, Buster, and is always accompanied by her dog, Superior.  She loves her connection to all the families on Pierson Point, babysitting and even preparing a morning summer camp for a handful of the younger kids.  However, of all the families on the point, there' no one else her age, until Ian arrives.

Most of the story is very believable.  Lucy is particularly mean to her dad's girlfriend.  Makes sense.  She's super nice to everyone else.  She figures out how other people think and expects fairness from everyone.  She's trustworthy - all believable.  There's one place where she apologizes to the girlfriend (darn but I can't remember her name) that I can't quite picture a kid doing, but this is a really good kid, so I shouldn't be such a doubting Thomas.  Everyone - except one person, Ian's sister Allison - is almost a little too nice.  There are a lot of nice people in this book.  A few too man?  Well this is MAINE after all!!

The setting is written so that I get a good feel for the place.  However, summertime in Maine (even on the coast) would have more discussion about bugs (mosquitoes especially) than just the fireflies that are mentioned.  That I know for a fact!  Black Flies- the Maine state bird.......

Mama, Is It Summer Yet? - Nikki McClure

Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2010
$17.95
32 pages
Rating: 4
Endpapers: Red with white strawberry vine paper cuts

Two page spreads
Left page: solid color with the words, "Mama, is it summer yet?"
Right page: A black & white cut paper illustration on pale yellow.
Then, two pages with the simple response. For example:

"Not yet, my little one.
But the buds are swelling.
Soon new leaves will unfold."

The illustrations are black and white cut paper on a pale yellow with accents of the solid color from the previous page. They tie together beautifully and are quite lovely. I love the look.

Every four pages become a different color - green, brown, purple, yellow, pink, and then red when summer finally arrives. The book is simple and beautiful.