Indian Summer BY: Tracy Richardson PUBLISHED BY: Luminis Books PUBLISHED IN: 2010 ISBN: 978-1-935462-25-5 Pages: 200 Reviewed by Billy Burgess Ages: Middle Grade In “Indian Summer,” Marcie Horton is a twelve-year-old who loves to win competitions, especially bike races. She’s not lo... more

Indian Summer BY: Tracy Richardson PUBLISHED BY: Luminis Books PUBLISHED IN: 2010 ISBN: 978-1-935462-25-5 Pages: 200 Reviewed by Billy Burgess Ages: Middle Grade In “Indian Summer,” Marcie Horton is a twelve-year-old who loves to win competitions, especially bike races. She’s not looking forward to her summer vacation this year. She spending the summer at her grandparent’s lake cottage on Lake Pappakeechee. Kaitlyn Swyndall is the only other girl she knew there, but Kaitlyn is a rich, snobby girl. Marcia befriends some other kids at the lake, and is looking forward to the upcoming boat race. The woods, James Woods, surrounding the lake is going to be torn down by a wealthy developer, Mr. Swyndall. He is the president of the university where Marcie Horton’s parents teach, and he is also the father of Kaitlyn. Marcia is starting to like her, so things start to get complicated. Marcia begins to have strange visions of a mysterious spirit. Could it be Indians? “Indian Summer,” is a easy, fast read. I read it in one sitting. The author likes to “tell” more often than “showing” in her writing. The plot is simple - a pre-teen girl tries to stop a wealthy developer from destroying the centuries-old forest. I’ve read dozens of similar plots before, this is nothing new. The ending of the book is predictable. The main character, Marcia, is fun, energetic and likeable. Despite the book’s downfalls, I still enjoyed reading it. Note: I would like to thank the Author for sending me this complimentary copy to review.

Spending most of the summer at her grandparents house out at Lake Pappakeechee, Marcie Horton was not sure if her mothers plan for her to spend time with and go sailing with the “popular girl” Kaitlyn Swyndall would be a good idea. Suddenly she started having feelings of flying and being drawn ... more

Spending most of the summer at her grandparents house out at Lake Pappakeechee, Marcie Horton was not sure if her mothers plan for her to spend time with and go sailing with the “popular girl” Kaitlyn Swyndall would be a good idea. Suddenly she started having feelings of flying and being drawn to James Bay and the woods behind it, then finding out that her new friends dad, Mr. Swyndall, was planning on developing the woods into a new gated community of summer homes made Marcie more uneasy about her growing friendship with Kaitlyn. Bonds were forming while training with the Swyndall kids for the Regatta boat race to be held on July 4th, but how would Marcie’s desire to prevent Mr. Swyndall from building in James woods effect their relationship? When the visions of another time and another girl continued to intrigue Marcie, she and her brother join forces with a family friend (Al Depena) to find a way to stop the development and possibly preserve something of import. A slow start to this cute and inspirational story. While already dealing with several aspects of being a teenager, Marcie encounters some real moral issues. The way she deals with having visions, overhearing a private conversation and deciding how to stop the woods she loves from being lost to a developer, helps to show her what kind of person she is. She could have given in to peer pressure and left the whole issue alone, but instead she figured out what she felt was the right thing to do and did it. That seems to be the theme, even though she has a few bad moments (eavesdropping and stealing), overall she does what she thinks is right and it works out well. This is quite obviously a young adult book with a long introduction to Marcie and the other characters. While it takes a long time to get to the point, the story is still a interesting one with a few supernatural events and one exciting boat race that didn’t end the way I expected it to. I really liked the interaction with Al, the deference that the younger characters offer him is very nice to see.