Bibliography: Reinhardt, Dana. (2011). The Summer I Learned to Fly. New York: Random House Children’s Books. ISBN: 978-0385739542
Plot Summary: The summer before eighth grade, and Drew is working in her mother’s cheese shop where she hangs out with surf bum Nick (who she also has a crush on.) When she isn’t working, she plays with her pet rat and ponders her dead father’s Book of Lists. When she met Emmett in the alley behind the shop after closing one night, she never expected the friendship and adventure that would follow.
Critical Analysis: This quiet unassuming book is almost perfect. A perfect picture of what it is like to have your everyday existence interrupted, to allow a stranger to become a friend, to widen the circle of your life. It is about small events that change us and how we have to take a chance to grow and become the person we are going to be. At least partially autobiographical in nature, Reinhardt’s mother also owned a gourmet cheese shop, it is also a perfect snapshot of atmosphere, time, and place. I hope that librarians are preparing their booktalks using the details of rats, cheese and the Book of Lists to entice readers to pick this up. They won’t be disappointed.
Review Excerpts: “Laced with mystery and fascinating details about Drew’s chief interests—rats and cheese—this quiet novel invites readers to share in its heroine’s deepest yearnings, changing moods, and difficult realizations. Strong imagery…will stay with readers.”–Publisher’s Weekly
“Reinhardt has written another book that will resonate with any readers learning to spread their wings and fly.”–School Library Journal
“[A] lucid voice that is thoughtful and entertaining without being showy….There is a hint throughout of being a step removed that balances the immediacy of the events being related and the power of hindsight….Quiet yet immensely appealing.”–Kirkus Reviews
Reviewed from publisher provided advanced copy. Amazon Affiliate: If you click from here to Amazon and buy something, I receive a percentage of the purchase price.
