Sometime in Summer
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
From critically acclaimed author Katrina Leno comes a tender love letter to books and summertime, with a touch of magic.
Anna Lucia Bell believes in luck: bad luck. Bad luck made her best friend stop talking to her. Bad luck caused her parents’ divorce. Bad luck is forcing her mother, Miriam, to sell the family’s beloved bookstore. And it is definitely bad luck that Anna seems to be the only person in the world Miriam is unable to recommend a life-changing book.
When Anna finds out that she and her mom are spending two months in a New England seaside town called Rockport, she expects a summer plagued with bad luck too. But Rockport has surprises in store for Anna, including a comet making its first appearance in over twenty years and two new—but familiar—friends.
In what will prove to be the most important summer of her life so far, Anna learns about love, herself, and the magic that an ordinary summer can bring.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Leno's (Horrid) thought-provoking narrative blends past, present, and light fantasy to explore one teen's transformative seaside summer. Fourteen-year-old Anna Lucia Bell believes in bad luck. It's why her best friend is no longer talking to her, why her parents separated 11 months ago, and why her mother plans to close Bell's Books, the family's beloved California bookstore and Anna's sanctuary. With her grief still fresh, she anticipates a miserable summer spent at her late great-aunt's cottage in Rockport, Mass. While exploring coastal Rockport, though, she befriends book-loving Emmy and easygoing Beckett, both also 14. Together, they share the town's timeless beauty, and Anna tentatively considers that good fortune brought them to her. When Kit-Hale comet appears over Rockport for the first time in 28 years, Anna wishes that her parents would "love each other forever," and her summer takes on an enchanted quality, prompting her to look at her family, friendships, and her perception of fortune with new eyes. Leno's meandering prose is gentle, and an undefined time line adds subtle magic to the narrative. Anna's internal growth, facilitated by intimate character dynamics and an emphasis on friends and family's importance, is heartfelt. Most characters cue as white. Ages 12–up.
