The Summer of June
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
From the acclaimed author of Tune It Out and Roll with It comes a “needed, hopeful” (Booklist) middle grade book about a young girl who sets out to overcome her anxiety over the course of one life-changing summer.
Twelve-year-old June Delancey is kicking summer off with a bang. She shaves her head and sets two goals: she will beat her anxiety and be the lion she knows she can be, instead of the mouse everyone sees. And she and her single mama will own their power as fierce, independent females.
With the help of Homer Juarez, the poetry-citing soccer star who believes in June even when she doesn’t believe in herself, she starts a secret library garden and hatches a plan to make her dreams come true. But when her anxiety becomes too much, everything begins to fall apart. It’s going to take more than a haircut and some flowers to set things right. It’s going to take courage and friends and watermelon pie. Forget second chances. This is the summer of new beginnings.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Tired of "being the nervous mouse girl who is scared all the time," 11-year-old June—who quiets anxious thoughts by pulling out strands of her hair—shaves her head at the beginning of summer, deciding that she and her single librarian mother will "own our power as fierce, independent females." Though eliminating this coping mechanism doesn't curb the "itchy worry," it does lead to her wearing an electric blue wig. And her new vibe attracts the friendship of poetry-reciting Homer Juarez, whom June meets at the library. Following an incident with her mother's strict boss, who attempts to destroy Miss Rumphius–inspired seedlings, Homer and June start a secret garden behind the library, where June finds respite in caring for vulnerable plants. Soon, though, the garden and emboldening wig lead to June impulsively stopping her anxiety meds, with disastrous results. In a love letter to libraries told in June's thoughtful voice, Sumner (Tune It Out) vividly traces one adolescent's anxiety and its attendant difficulties. June and her mom are white; racial diversity is implied for secondary characters. Ages 10–up.
