FINISHED:
Beil, Michael D. (2012). Summer at Forsaken Lake. New York: Knopf.

Twelve-year old Nicholas, and his younger twin sisters, travel from New York City to spend the summer on a lake in rural Ohio with their Uncle Nick.  Thus begins a summer of discovery and growth for Nicholas including learning to sail, restoring an old boat, discovering the joys of reading (and classic titles, to boot!), and a mystery involving an accident that occurred while Nicholas’s father was trying to make a short film (“The Seaweed Strangler”) when he was Nicholas’s age.  Nicholas makes a friend (and more?) in Charlie, a strong girl who can strikeout any boy with her amazing pitching arm, and his uncle teaches him to ride a bike by having him ride alongside a barn with one hand brushing against the side for stability.  This, and letting Nicholas take a boat out on the lake alone, go miles in building Nicholas’s confidence and teaching him to be an independent adult – especially since Nicholas rarely sees his father, as his dad travels around the world with “Doctors Without Borders”.  Michael D. Beil, author of the Red Blazer Girls series (Knopf/Random House, 2009) (LOVE them!) has written one of those “summer coming-of-age” stories with vivid characters and setting that should appeal to BOTH boys and girls.]

STARTED:
Gantos, Jack. (2011). Dead end in Norvelt. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

[ALA is coming up and I'm going to the Newbery/Caldecott banquet so I thought I ought to read last year's winner...]

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