Seaglass Summer
Grade 3–6—While her parents are in India on business, 11-year-old Poppy Ray spends a month with her veterinarian uncle, Sanjay. She begins the summer with naïvely high expectations, planning to use her time healing and saving pets of all kinds. However, as her mother is allergic to anything with fur, life in Los Angeles has given Poppy no practical knowledge of animals or their peculiar owners. Her stubborn resolve to help Uncle Sanjay's clients brings her frustration, anger, and hurt, but a developing friendship with 13-year-old Hawk and meditation with a piece of seaglass slowly give her a more realistic understanding of animals, humans, and their relationships. In this realistic story, adults are pretty much hands-off, allowing Poppy to explore her new independence and grow with her experiences. Animal lovers will appreciate the warm, fuzzy moments, cry at the sad times, and feel at home in this rural island community off the coast of Washington state.—Carolyn Janssen, Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, OHCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.