Minn and Jake's Almost Terrible Summer
Grade 3–5—Minn and Jake are back in this new free-verse installment. This time the 10-year-old pals are spending the summer apart. Jake is visiting his old neighborhood in Los Angeles and is excited to have no plans. No science camp. No swimming lessons. But he soon discovers that it isn't much fun to wake up every day at 6 a.m. to his little brother, Soup, jumping all over him or have his Korean grandmother stuffing him with food to "make him grow." Jake misses Minn, but he hasn't done a great job of keeping in touch this summer. But when she and her parents make a surprise visit, things start to heat up. On a trip to Disneyland, the friends have a fight and end up not speaking. All is resolved when they both acknowledge their mistakes. Whimsical ink sketches enhance the storytelling in this creative early chapter book that features smart, endearing characters and humorous antics.—Bethany A. Lafferty, Las Vegas-Clark County Library, NVCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.