We all have ability. The difference is how we use it.
Charlotte Whitton
Author: Susan Uhlig
Loon Cove Summer
Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
Loon Cover Summer (Wild Trail Press, 2025) by Donna Galanti is a heart-warming tale of family, friends, and healing. Plus disappearing loons.
Thirteen-year-old Sarah Richardson has planned a great summer, then finds out her best and only friend will be gone for six weeks. What will she do? Yeah, still work at the wild bird rehabilitation center. Yeah, still do her jobs at the Maine campground her father owns. Gemmi recommends a “Summer Dream Do List” and they each choose five things. Number one on Sarah’s list is “save a loon,” but how can she do that when she hasn’t been able to face going out on the lake since her mother died of cancer?
Readers of The Trouble with Heroes by Kate Messner and The Honest Truth by Dan Gemeinhart will enjoy this story.
You can watch a book trailer of Loon Cover Summer here, read about the author here, and check out Donna’s other books here.
I have a gently-read paperback copy to share (US only). For a chance to win, comment on this post. Get an extra entry by telling me where you shared this post on social media–please include a link. Drawing will take place September 10th.
A day will come when the story inside you will want to breathe on its own. That’s when you’ll start writing.
Sarah Noffke
A day will come
Elsetime
Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
Elsetime (Everything with Words, 2020) by Eve McDonnell is a fascinating historical set in two time periods (1864 and 1928) with time travel, and was inspired by the 1928 Great Flood of London.
First we meet orphaned Glory, an eleven-year-old looking for a job, who is dressing up to look older. She’s been expelled from school because of her wooden hand–it would be a waste to educate her. But not only is she determined to get a job, she plans to own an emporium someday. Meanwhile, she and her older sister must earn enough to keep the landlord at bay.
Then the story switches to Needle, also eleven, whose father is missing. A mudlark who digs up lost treasures at the river’s edge, Needle senses the story behind each piece. He takes his found bits and pieces and makes beautiful things to sell so he and his mother can survive.
What connects them? A crow named Magpie and a list of who will die in the flood.
The novel has won awards: Winner Children’s Book Award (pre-publication) Wells Festival of Literature 2017, Book of the Year 2020: Halfway Up Books, and Children’s Book of the Year 2020: Bridge Street Books.
Read about this Irish author here and check out her other books here. Eve is also an artist!
The best way to nurture your love of words and language is to be around words and language.
Mary Kole