The Best Last Days of Summer - Middle Grade Novel - Valerie Hobbs

Lucy, 12, and her best friend, Megan, plan to follow Seventeen magazines tips on how to join the popular crowd when they start middle school at the end of the summer. Lucy has spent the last few months as a caregiver for Eddie, a classmate with special needs. What if he tries to hang out with her at school? Will it hurt her chances with the in group? During summer vacation, she is happy to leave Eddie and spend some time with her beloved Grams at the lake, but Grams, a hippie and gifted potter, requires supervision, too: she is becoming forgetful and even accidentally starts a fire. Then Eddie turns up at Grams after a long, difficult bus ride to bring Lucy a token of friendship. The story takes some predictable turns: in the end, kindhearted Lucy refuses to reject Eddie in favor of the superficial, glamorous crowd. But the messages of tolerance never feel too heavy, and what makes the drama especially heartbreaking are the occasional switches to Eddies viewpoint, which reveal that although he is obsessive-compulsive, slow, and forgetful, he is also thoughtful, warm, and funny. The storys finely tuned realism is refreshing, particularly in Lucys yearning for social acceptance and in the fully drawn and wholly memorable characters.
Hazel Rochman

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Val Hobbs
• SCBWI
• Frances Foster Books
• FS&G
• Autistic Children
• Kid literature
• grandparents
• middle grade book.