Sometime in Summer

Gr 7-10–Fourteen-year-old Anna Lucia Bell is a firm believer in luck, and it seems that lately all she is experiencing is the bad kind. Her parents are getting divorced, her mom is selling the family bookstore, and she got into a fight with her best friend. When her mom whisks her away to a cottage on the east coast for the summer, Anna is skeptical. Once they arrive, however, an extended meteor shower brings about the possibility of wishes and new beginnings. Between reading and going to the beach, Anna discovers a pair of new friends who give her more insight into what she has been going through than she could ever have imagined. Leno immerses readers in an intoxicating small town with old-fashioned charm. There is just about an equal amount of time spent discussing what Anna’s parents are facing as there is to her experiences. The time travel aspect presented in this novel is intriguing but is unfortunately underdeveloped and is not properly explained.