The Summer We Found the Baby
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
Set during World War II, this poignant, briskly paced historical novel relays the events of one extraordinary summer from three engaging points of view. On the morning of the dedication of the new children’s library in Belle Beach, Long Island, eleven-year-old Julie Sweet and her six-year-old sister, Martha, find a baby in a basket on the library steps. At the same time, twelve-year-old Bruno Ben-Eli is on his way to the train station to catch the 9:15 train into New York City. He is on an important errand for his brother, who is a soldier overseas in World War II. But when Bruno spies Julie, the same Julie who hasn’t spoken to him for sixteen days, heading away from the library with a baby in her arms, he has to follow her. Holy everything, he thinks. Julie Sweet is a kidnapper. Of course, the truth is much more complicated than the children know in this heartwarming and beautifully textured family story by award-winning author Amy Hest. Told in three distinct voices, each with a different take on events, the novel captures the moments and emotions of a life-changing summer — a summer in which a baby gives a family hope and brings a community together.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Hest (Letters to Leo) interlaces three perspectives to relay a story about two families living in a Long Island seaside town during WWII. Each credible voice is distinct yet complementary, shaping a richly layered, cohesive novel that is by turns heartwarming and heartbreaking. It opens with a bang, as 11-year-old Julie Sweet and her younger sister, Martha, find an infant in a basket on the library steps, and Julie impulsively decides to flee with it. Her on-again-off-again friend and nemesis Bruno Ben-Eli, 12, is on a mission for his beloved, greatly missed older brother, who's off serving in the war, when he sees the sisters with the baby. He surreptitiously follows them to the beach, where a stately woman in a chauffeur-driven car arrives with a picnic to share. Hest deftly deconstructs this scenario through Bruno's, Julie's, and Martha's flashbacks, escalating the intrigue before finally illuminating the identities of the baby and the woman and why each has appeared. A poignant composite portrait of three children's and two loving families' hope and resilience in the face of loss and uncertainty. Ages 10 up.
Customer Reviews
The summer I found the baby
There’s three perspectives, and it’s hard to understand.
For adults