Summerlings

June 15, 2019
Eight-year-old John revels in summertime hijinks with his two best friends while storm clouds gather all around, obscuring the sun. Howorth (Flying Shoes, 2014) first introduces John on a tour of the verdant suburban street where he lives outside of Washington, D.C., with his sister, Liz, and their grandparents Brickie and Dimma. John's parents are divorced. His dad is an unemployed drinker and carouser, and his mother, who may or may not have tuberculosis, has been in a hospital for two years. Tensions roil under the calm lawns of idyllic Connors Lane. John rides his bike, catches spiders, and hatches strategies with his best buds, Ivan and Max. But there's an undercurrent of unhappiness and distrust on the tree-lined streets of the neighborhood. It's 1959, and just about everybody hails from a different country impacted by World War II. The cold war on Connors Lane seems especially frigid. The people who live next door carried their prejudices and hatreds with them when they crossed the Atlantic. John and his friends develop their own version of the Marshall Plan to bring everyone together: the Beaver Plan, a blowout party/fiesta organized over the course of a summer. The three boys idealize Ivan's stylish young aunt, Elena, who helps them prepare for the big event. She smokes Vogues, drinks Cuba Libres, and buys them ice cream. Elena and her brother are Ukrainian immigrants who harbor dark secrets about their past. On the night of the party, a mysterious tragedy occurs. Was it an accident or something more sinister? John, Max, and Ivan will never be the same. Howorth has a gift for crafting memorable characters and an authentic sense of place. She writes with a clear understanding of the catastrophes seeded by intolerance while creating a rich overview of America on the brink of the turbulent 1960s. An engaging coming-of-age story focused on the unraveling of truths hidden just beneath the surface.

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October 21, 2019
Howorth (Flying Shoes) cleverly portrays a 1959 neighborhood in this satisfying story of childhood. John is an eight-year-old living on Conners Lane in a middle-class Washington, D.C., exurb, spending a sweltering summer with his two best friends, Ivan and Max. The boys’ families and others living on their block represent a wide mix of personalities with diverse backgrounds, resulting in drama of all types as seen through youthful eyes. Arguments are audible between homes, and sometimes the boys witness unsettling confrontations. They’re particularly worried about Elena, Ivan’s beautiful aunt, whose bruises are visible after a fight with Ivan’s father. Boyhood schemes and adventures are nevertheless a large part of this story, including planning a “Fabulous Family Fiesta” to draw the neighbors closer and collecting spiders during a bizarre infestation that overwhelms the area, hoping to find a poisonous variety that can be used as a weapon against the neighborhood bully. The playful fantasies of young boys are richly described, varying from sweet naïveté to coarse body functions, and disturbing learning curves toward adulthood are touchingly portrayed. John’s voice is real and guileless, a spot-on representation of the youthful innocence that can remain active inside an observant, intelligent young boy.

August 1, 2019
In the summer of 1959, eight-year-old narrator John wakes one morning to find his Washington, DC, neighborhood covered in spiderwebs. John and his best friends immediately see the spiderpocalypse as an incredible opportunity. Longtime butterfly collectors, they'll now hunt spiders, especially the poisonous ones. When they've nearly given up hope of finding something terrible to sick on bully Slutcheon, they hear about the newly discovered vinegaroon scorpion, which is being housed in the Smithsonian, and set their sights. Meanwhile, they work on their "Beaver Plan" to encourage their multinational neighbors?nervous and suspicious of one another" because of the Cold War?to get along more like neighbors on TV. All will culminate in the "Fabulous Family Fiesta" they've planned for summer's end, to which everyone is invited. John and his friends, constantly zinging each other and making believably ill-informed decisions, constitute the book's greatest appeal. For all the things her kid characters don't quite understand, Howorth (Flying Shoes, 2014) leaves holes for readers to fill in. A nostalgia-soaked, atomic era tour of DC from a banana seat.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)