Forever This Summer
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
The second book from critically acclaimed author Leslie C. Youngblood, about family, identity, and learning to stand up for what's right -- now in paperback! Georgie has no idea what to expect when she, Mama, and Peaches are plopped down in the middle of small town USA--aka Bogalusa, Louisiana--where Mama grew up and Great Aunt Vie needs constant care. Georgie wants to help out at the once famous family diner that served celebrities like the Jackson 5 and the Supremes, but everyone is too busy to show her the ropes and Mama is treating her like a baby, not letting her leave her sight. When she finally gets permission to leave on her own, Georgie makes friends with Markie--a foster kid who'd been under Aunt Elvie's care--who has a limb difference and a huge attitude. Then Markie asks Georgie to help her find her mom, and suddenly summer has a real purpose. But as Georgie and Markie's histories begin to entwine, Georgie becomes more desperate to find the truth. But words spoken cannot be taken back and once Georgie knows the truth, she may even find a way to right past wrongs and help Aunt Vie and Markie out after all.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Though Georgie, 11, wants to spend the summer creating dance routines with her best friend, she instead finds herself headed from her home outside Atlanta to Bogalusa, La.—a small town that, thanks to the local paper mill, literally "stinks." While Georgie's sister Peaches, who's recovering from meningitis, stays with the girls' father, Georgie and her mother will be helping great-aunt Vie, whose Alzheimer's has recently accelerated, and working to keep Sweetings, the diner Vie established, operational. But Georgie's stuck at Vie's home doing chores until meeting 12-year-old Markie Jean, a girl with a limb difference who works at the diner. As Georgie and Markie become close, and Georgie begins to win some independence from her protective mother, she makes it her duty—with mixed results—to find Markie's biological family, raise community awareness about Alzheimer's, and save the family's restaurant. Crafting a largely Black tween cast embarking on a summer full of family secrets, friendship, soul food, and life lessons, Youngblood (Love Like Sky) delivers a well-paced look at the importance of family legacy. Ages 8–12.
