Vickers, Elaine. Half Moon Summer. Peachtree, 06/2023. 288pp. Fiction. Trade $17.99. 978-1-68263-539-1. GRADES 5 – 7. HIGH ADDITIONAL.
The summer before they turn thirteen, both Mia and Drew wish they could turn back time to when things were simpler and their families felt whole, before best friends were far away, and before responsibilities loomed. But Drew’s dad is determined that this will be the best summer ever and when he ropes the visiting Mia into training for the Half Moon Bay half marathon, he puts the two on a path neither expect. Told in two voices and short chapters, Drew writes in prose and Mia in verse. Their increasingly complicated lives are conveyed economically and affectingly as they discover a surprising connection and are pulled from their past worlds into a future neither can control. Characters read as white. Reviewed from an ARC.
Melissa McAvoy—Retired