Caterpillar summer

Title:

Caterpillar summer

Author:

Summary:

"Cat and her brother Chicken have always had a very special bond--Cat is one of the few people who can keep Chicken happy. When he has a "meltdown" she's the one who scratches his back and reads his favorite story. She's the one who knows what Chicken needs. Since their mom has had to work double-hard to keep their family afloat after their father passed away, Cat has been the glue holding her family together. But even the strongest glue sometimes struggles to hold. When a summer trip doesn't go according to plan, Cat and Chicken end up spending three weeks with grandparents they never knew. For the first time in years, Cat has the opportunity to be a kid again, and the journey she takes shows that even the most broken or strained relationships can be healed if people take the time to walk in one another's shoes." -- Provided by Amazon.

Physical Description:

295 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

Subject Term:

Siblings -- Juvenile fiction.

Responsibility -- Juvenile fiction.

Single-parent families -- Juvenile fiction.

Grandparents -- Juvenile fiction.

Islands -- Juvenile fiction.

Families -- Juvenile fiction.

Geographic Term:

North Carolina -- Juvenile fiction.

Publisher:

Bloomsbury Children's Books,

Publication Date:

2019

ISBN:

9781681197432

9781526606266

Publication Information:

New York : Bloomsbury Children's Books, 2019.

Call Number:

J MCDUNN

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607003431056	Juvenile Fiction	MCDUNN	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

This beautifully written, emotional debut perfect for fans of Lynda Mullaly Hunt or Ali Benjamin tells the story of a girl, her special needs brother, and the summer they will never forget.

"An engaging, honest book." --Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, Newbery Honor-winning author of The War That Saved My Life

" A beautiful story of family, forgiveness, life on an island, and growing up."--Kate Messner, author of Breakout and The Seventh Wish

Cat and her brother Chicken have always had a very special bond--Cat is one of the few people who can keep Chicken happy. When he has a "meltdown" she's the one who scratches his back and reads his favorite story. She's the one who knows what Chicken needs. Since their mom has had to work double-hard to keep their family afloat after their father passed away, Cat has been the glue holding her family together.

But even the strongest glue sometimes struggles to hold. When a summer trip doesn't go according to plan, Cat and Chicken end up spending three weeks with grandparents they never knew. For the first time in years, Cat has the opportunity to be a kid again, and the journey she takes shows that even the most broken or strained relationships can be healed if people take the time to walk in one another's shoes.

An Indies Introduce Pick
A Parents Best Book of the Year
A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year
An Amazon Best Book of the Year

Author Notes

Gillian McDunn has lived in California, Missouri, and North Carolina, and is a fan of both the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans. Like Cat, Gillian grew up as the big sister to a younger brother with special needs. She lives near Raleigh, NC, with her family. This is her first book.
gillianmcdunn.com

Reviews (2)

School Library Journal Review

Gr 3-6-Rising sixth-grader Caterpillar has a lot on her mind. She has a younger brother on the autism spectrum, her father died recently, and her mother's artistic temperament is leaving Cat with a lot of responsibility at a young age. Cat is excited to go to Atlanta for the summer so that she can spend time with her best friend and just enjoy being a kid. All this changes when her best friend has a family emergency that takes him to India. Cat finds herself on a small island in North Carolina with grandparents she's never met and she doesn't know the real reason her mom has kept her away from her grandparents. Over the course of the summer, Cat learns to love her mothers's parents. She also learns to let go of some of her feelings of always needing to be there for her brother by allowing others to help. While Caterpillar and her brother are both biracial, this is not a critical component of the plot. Readers may question whether race was a factor in the degeneration of Cat's mother's relationship with her own parents, but this turns out not to be the case. There are minor references to Caterpillar's struggle with her hair and her white mother's inability to style it effectively. The representation in this case is important from the standpoint of biracial visibility. Though this is not an uncommon family structure, it is seen infrequently in middle grade fiction. VERDICT A sweet summer story that middle grade readers will appreciate.-Kristin Lee -Anderson, Jackson County Library Services, OR © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publisher's Weekly Review

Intensely responsible Cat, 11, looks after her seven-year old brother, Chicken, whose unique stressors and focused intensity require patience and attention, particularly since the death of their father. When the family's summer plans unexpectedly fall through, the biracial siblings are sent to stay with their estranged maternal grandparents, Macon and Lily, on an island off the North Carolina coast, while their mother-who writes children's books loosely based on her children's lives-works in Georgia. Cat's curiosity about the troubled history between her mother and Macon brings her insecurities about her often overwhelming role as Chicken's caretaker to the fore, leading to a summer of difficult conversations and necessary change in family dynamics. Cat's developing relationship with her grandparents, shifting role in Chicken's life, and growth toward a more honest relationship with her mother are deeply moving in their realism, as are Cat's burgeoning self-awareness and self-advocacy. Set against a cushioning backdrop of fishing, beach trips, and ice cream, McDunn's poignant, gratifying debut about friendship and family encourages both empathy and hope. Ages 8-12. Agent: Marietta B. Zacker, Gallt and Zacker Literary Agency. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.