{"id":3878,"date":"2025-08-20T11:51:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T11:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=3878"},"modified":"2025-08-20T11:51:00","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T11:51:00","slug":"book-review-summer-solstice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=3878","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Summer Solstice"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Summer Solstice<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

by Kelly Williams<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong> Middle Grade Fiction<\/p>\n

ISBN: <\/strong>9781964903002<\/p>\n

Print Length:<\/strong> 252 pages<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Reviewed by Peter Hassebroek<\/em><\/p>\n

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.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Elliot Blake is a reluctant passenger on an Antarctic Research Vessel, dragged along by his scientist mother who\u2019ll be working on the remote continent all summer. He\u2019s haunted by dreams of a car accident in Albuquerque that took his father\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s eleven and the only other non-adult.<\/p>\n

Naturally, she\u2019s grateful for company closer to her age. Olivia\u2019s also a veteran of the station, accustomed to the isolation, likely knowing what Elliot\u2019s going through. She shows him around, ignoring his silent rebuffs, which prove to be no match for her indomitable spirit and patience:<\/p>\n

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\u201cElliot didn\u2019t realize he was smiling until he caught Olivia staring at him with a triumphant grin.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018I knew it!\u2019 she exclaimed, pointing at his face. \u2018The penguins got you! Nobody can resist the penguins.\u2019\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s to come.<\/p>\n

It gets better with the introduction of Olivia. Her beaming energy, like the landscape around him, is at odds with Elliot\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s experiences. (Besides, Olivia might warrant a novel of her own. )<\/p>\n

Summer Solstice<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n

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Thank you for reading Peter Hassebroek\u2019s book review of Summer Solstice<\/em> by Kelly Williams! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.<\/p>\n

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Summer Solstice by Kelly Williams Genre: Middle Grade Fiction ISBN: 9781964903002 Print Length: 252 pages Amazon 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3879,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bookreviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3878"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}