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Summary
Summary
Ten-year-old Lexie used to love going to the shore. For as long as she can remember, she's spent every summer there with her parents, eating hamburgers, swimming in the ocean, and combing the beach for treasure. This summer is going to be different though. Lexie's Mom and Daddy are divorced, and for the first time Mom won't be there. To make matters worse, Daddy has a surprise--his new girlfriend, Vicky, and her two sons are coming to stay with them for a week! Now Lexie has to share her house with perky Vicky, Vicky's moody teenage son Ben, and messy three-year-old Harris. The little beach house just doesn't seem big enough for so many people. Is there still room for Lexie?
In a voice that's sharp, funny, and sincere, Newbery Honor-winning author Audrey Couloumbis tells the story of a girl discovering that if you pay attention, sometimes you can find treasure in the most unlikely places.
Author Notes
AUDREY COULOUMBIS's first book for children, Getting Near to Baby, won the Newbery Honor in 2000. Audrey is also the author of several other highly acclaimed books for young readers, including The Misadventures of Maude March (which was named a Book Sense 76 Pick, a New York Public Library 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing Selection, and a National Parenting Publications Gold Award winner), Love Me Tender (a Book Sense Summer 2008 Pick) and War Games (a Junior Library Guild Selection). Audrey lives in upstate New York and Florida.
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-5-Spending time at the beach house on the Jersey shore is filled with tradition and ritual, and 10-year-old Lexie has always loved it-until this year. It's the first summer after her parents' divorce, and everything has changed, especially when she discovers en route that she and her dad won't be alone. He neglected to tell her that his new girlfriend and her sons will be spending the entire week with them. Lexie finds herself sharing a small space with a woman who doesn't know the house rules and who sounds whiny; an adolescent boy; and an eternally grubby preschooler. She also sees a side of her father that is new to her. Lexie makes a keenly observant narrator, a believable only child who has spent much more time around adults than the average kid. Tuned in to emotions, both hers and those of the people around her, she makes a fine reporter as the two families work toward creating a new kind of normal. The characters seem remarkably real. Each one is flawed but also, by turns, warm, sympathetic, and likable. The action is largely interpersonal, yet the depiction of the ebb and flow of family life by an insider turned observer is a memorable testament to its importance in our lives. Readers will continue to think about Lexie's family and their own long after reading the last page.-Faith Brautigam, Gail Borden Public Library District, Elgin, IL (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Horn Book Review
Her parents' divorce triggers another unpleasant change for almost-eleven-year-old Lexie: only Lexie and Dad will vacation at the shore this summer. Lexie looks forward to spending time alone with Dad, but not to the unfamiliar routine. Her mother explains, "A big part of growing up is dealing with things we don't like," and this summer brings a lot not to like. Lexie's father asks a "friend," Vicky, and her two sons, teenage Ben and his little brother Harris, to join the vacation. All of a sudden Lexie feels like a visitor in her summer home, a feeling that only intensifies when her father admits that he and Vicky are marrying. Small details define this decidedly interior novel, told from Lexie's introspective point of view. For example, a saddened Lexie realizes that her dad tells Ben and Harris the same jokes he once exclusively shared with her, and Ben quietly withdraws when the two adults show affection toward each other. Couloumbis compresses a lot of change, both endured and accepted, into a single week, but wisely doesn't end with everyone living happily ever after. Instead, she suggests that the young characters are caught in an inevitable situation and might just make the best of it. betty carter (c) Copyright 2011. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Quietly and ever so gently, Couloumbis explores the topics of divorce and remarriage and how they affect the children involved.Ten-year-old Lexie is off for a week at her family's beach cottage on the Jersey Shore, reluctantly leaving her mother behind for the first time since her parents' recent divorce. What she doesn't expect is that her father has invited his new "friend," Vicky, and her two children, 14-year-old Ben and 3-year-old always-sticky Harris, who makes constant truck noises, endearingly preferring to be called Mackfor the truck, of course. Vicky's Mary Tyler Moore smile, perpetually pasted on her face, makes her real feelings hard to read, and Ben's a bit prickly. What's worse is that Lexie didn't see it coming; her father, afraid of her reaction, hadn't told her this relationship is serious. The cottage is small, so all of them quite believably get in each other's way while exploring what this new family might feel like. Lexie's fearsbecoming a guest in her father's house and that her mother will be deeply hurtare valid, but her worries are eased by the loving relationships surrounding her. Convincing characters and solid dialogue enhance the credible plot, which is more focused on feelings than action.This tender, realistic tale might go a long way toward soothing the doubts of many children who are dealing with similarly trying situations. (Fiction. 9-12)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Ten-year-old Lexie knows that it will seem strange spending a week at the beach house with just her father, now that her parents are divorced. But she is unprepared for how she'll feel when she learns, en route, that he has invited Vicky a woman she has only briefly met an. her two sons to stay with them all week in the tiny house. Two days later, Lexie is blindsided when one of the boys lets another bit of unwelcome news slip. As the first-person narrator, Lexie acutely observes the actions and emotions of those around her, and she expresses herself with uncommon clarity and self-awareness. While the characters share meals, deal with sand-flea bites, and rescue a sand shark, this precisely worded story explores the nuances of Lexie's feelings about her father and the three strangers who quickly (maybe too quickly) become familiar to her. Adding to the book's appeal are the winsome jacket art and the full-page drawings appearing at the beginning of each chapter.--Phelan, Caroly. Copyright 2010 Booklist