Spoiler-free summary: A group of middle schoolers in the summer in the 1970s have intersecting stories, many focused on love and coming of age. Told mostly in the form of small moments and short chapters, with some longer stories mixed in. A charming book that deserved the medal.
Discussion: I mentioned this book in my discussion of What Hearts, and it made me want to re-read it. I didn’t take great notes during my read through of all the winners, and I mostly just remember really liking it when a lot of other reviewers didn’t. I called it one of my favorites at the time.
I was a little less in love with it this second time – maybe a 4.5 star read instead of a 5 star read. But it’s still a great book, and I still don’t understand the hatred. Looking at past Heavy Medal blog mock jury participants, at least one listed it as their least favorite Newbery, which has to be a product of not reading some of the older winners. My memory was that it was the worst rated on Goodreads, but it was just the worst recent one, there are some first-half ones with worse averages.
This is an even better tie-in to What Hearts than I had remembered, since it’s all about young love, too. There are some storylines that run through the book, but some of these chapters could basically be standalone flash fiction, entire wonderful self-contained stories in just a few pages. It’s also got a sort of melancholy about love in places that echoes What Hearts that I like a lot – the last chapter for instance, and the missed chance at a connection.
I don’t plan to do a lot of these winner re-reads – I’ve got enough honor books to get through – but it was nice to re-visit this one.
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