Bookverdict.com

Gr 5–8—Fans of Kadohata's Kira-Kira (S & S, 2004) will welcome this similarly gentle, character-driven exploration of familial bonds, this time set in the contemporary Midwest. With their parents called away to care for relatives in Japan, 12-year-old Summer and her younger brother, Jaz, accompany their grandparents, performing the grueling work that comes with the harvest season. In her likable voice, Summer observes the varying excitement, tedium, and challenges of harvesting wheat, sprinkling her narration with casual turns of phrase such as "OM...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

Twelve-year-old narrator Summer lives with her brother, parents, and grandparents in Kansas in this funny, poignant novel that will give urban and suburban readers a glimpse of contemporary rural life. Summer explains how wheat farmers hire custom harvesters (independent contractors who own farming equipment), who in turn hire people like her parents to drive the combines all over the Midwest. But ever since Summer almost died from malaria, infected by a "rogue mosquito," her family has been down on its luck. Now her parents have been summoned to Japan to care for dy...Log In or Sign Up to Read More