In VanDusen’s middle-grade novel, a girl recounts a summer of loss.

It’s the summer of 1985 in Creekside, California, and 12-year-old Ivy Anne Samuelson is complaining to her mother about having to attend a summer school program while her best friend is spending most of the summer away in Hawaii. Her kindly great-grandfather convinces her to get a new book from the library for them to read together. Thus begins Ivy’s summer—spending time with her mom and little brother, reading a book out loud to her great-grandfather, and attending school—which is not what she planned. Then a new family moves in next door, and one of them is a cute boy, Johnny Victor, who’sjust a few years older than her. Meanwhile, her closest friend in summer school, Tori, draws away from her after they have a heated conversation about religion; Tori’s family are devout, conservative Baptists, and Ivy’s family doesn’t go to church. Ivy has also expressed her concern for Mr. Peters, the youth librarian at the local library who quit his job because of failing health, due to AIDS, which doesn’t sit well with Tori’s bigoted family. Ivy’s summer takes another turn when Great-Grandpa has a medical emergency during one of their reading sessions. Soon, Ivy is spurred into action; she organizes a debate in her class and helps write a letter to the president about Mr. Peters’ circumstances. In this novel for young readers, VanDusen effectively writes of a time that feels quite different from the present, yet resonates with elements that engaged youngsters will find familiar. The author jumps forward and backward in time to tell the story and includes snippets of history, such as the origin of Cleve Jones’ brilliant AIDS Memorial Quilt: “A quilt, he thought, recalling the quilt his great-grandmother had made him as a child. Why not create a memorial quilt?” The narrative is generally quite linear and very easy to follow, however, and the author also does a fair job of breaking down complex situations for a younger audience.

A slice-of-life novel for young readers that also models political engagement.