Book Review: The Mending Summer

The Mending Summer by Ali Standish

The Mending Summer isn’t a perfect book, but it’s a really good one: When Georgia goes to spend the summer at Aunt Marigold's so her mom can finish her degree, she is both relieved and annoyed. Annoyed because being stuck in the middle of nowhere with an aunt she hardly knows is definitely not going to be as much fun as her beloved summer camp. Relieved because things at home have gotten weird with her dad, who is sometimes the wonderful, loving father she has always known and sometimes “The Shadow Man” who is the opposite of the wonderful, loving father she has always known. When Georgia meets Angela in the woods, they vow to be “summer sisters” and discover a magic lake that seems like it can grant their wishes.

Realistic middle grades books often try to wrap up loose ends and “solve the problem,” but I liked that this book treated Georgia’s father’s alcoholism as a problem that she couldn’t solve: not by being the best daughter and not by wishing for a happy ending. The magic in this book is similarly unspectacular — it’s more about learning to see the world (including yourself) in different ways than it is about some big epic wish-come-true. These two things could leave you feeling like this is a ho-hum book, but it’s absolutely not — it’s a tender, nuanced portrait of finding that balance between hope and clear-eyedness that we need in all of our close relationships. Recommended.

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