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Book Review: Summer Solstice

Summer Solstice

by Kelly Williams

Genre: Middle Grade Fiction

ISBN: 9781964903002

Print Length: 252 pages

Reviewed by Peter Hassebroek

Snow, constant daylight, and an irrepressible girl contrast the darkness within a twelve-year-old boy in this charming Middle Grade novel set in Antarctica.

Elliot Blake is a reluctant passenger on an Antarctic Research Vessel, dragged along by his scientist mother who’ll be working on the remote continent all summer. He’s haunted by dreams of a car accident in Albuquerque that took his father’s life, his survivor guilt exacerbated by a harsh exchange just before it happened. The tragedy also fractured the relationship between son and mother. She hopes the extreme change of environment will aid their mutual healing.

The last thing the glum Elliot needs is a gregarious, chatty girl to impinge on his misery. Yet the first person he meets is Olivia Alvarez, a delightful scene stealer also on the bus taking them from the port to the research station. Her father is a scientist and her mother cooks meals for those working at the station. Olivia’s eleven and the only other non-adult.

Naturally, she’s grateful for company closer to her age. Olivia’s also a veteran of the station, accustomed to the isolation, likely knowing what Elliot’s going through. She shows him around, ignoring his silent rebuffs, which prove to be no match for her indomitable spirit and patience:

“Elliot didn’t realize he was smiling until he caught Olivia staring at him with a triumphant grin.

“‘I knew it!’ she exclaimed, pointing at his face. ‘The penguins got you! Nobody can resist the penguins.’”

While he might smile at the penguins, there is still the deeper pain he carries from Albuquerque, amplified by recurring dreams that relive the accident. This is beyond the powers of Olivia’s exuberance or the appeal of penguins. It takes the discovery of a wounded albatross to give Elliot a meaningful purpose, a responsibility. And a distraction from his dark thoughts, because trying to rehabilitate a wild bird is hard work and comes with an uncertain chance of success.

The opening of the novel has unhappy Elliot bracing the Southern Ocean winds on the prow of the ship with his mother beckoning him inside to escape a building storm. It could have opened with a scene at home of Elliot whining and resisting, but inevitably having no choice. Instead, the reader is put right into his situation. His defiance is more succinctly captured in transit, engaging and informing the reader, while also nicely setting up what’s to come.

It gets better with the introduction of Olivia. Her beaming energy, like the landscape around him, is at odds with Elliot’s moroseness. The interplay between these two is terrific. Though he may not have the same in-your-face charisma as Olivia, his personal growth becomes absorbing through the challenges and setbacks of nursing a wild animal back to health.

The adults play functional roles in the story, letting the children play as it were. I did long for a bit more of his relationship with his mother and maybe some more detail on how Olivia came to be Olivia, but these additions also could have diffused the focus on Elliot’s experiences. (Besides, Olivia might warrant a novel of her own. )

Summer Solstice has a lot going for it: fascinating setting, appealing main characters, flawless storytelling, and plenty of charm. Its story is simple, concise, yet with layers that can be explored in subsequent readings. Maybe not to the degree of a proverbial iceberg but enough to make this a book worth buying to keep, rather than merely to borrow and pass on.

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