The summer of the gypsy moths

Title:

Author:

Pennypacker, Sara, 1951- author.

Summary:

A foster child named Angel and twelve-year-old Stella, who are living with Stella's great-aunt Louise at the Linger Longer Cottage Colony on Cape Cod, secretly assume responsibility for the vacation rentals when Louise unexpectedly dies and the girls are afraid of being returned to the foster care system.

Audience:

Ages 8-12.

Edition:

1st ed.

Physical Description:

275 p. ; 22 cm.

Subject Term:

Secrets -- Fiction.

Loss (Psychology) -- Fiction.

Great-aunts -- Fiction.

Death -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

Cape Cod (Mass.) -- Fiction.

Publisher:

Balzer + Bray,

Publication Date:

2012

ISBN:

9780061964206

Publication Information:

New York : Balzer + Bray, c2012.

Call Number:

J PENNYPA

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607002674540	Juvenile Fiction	PENNYPA	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

Bound With These Titles

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Summary

From Clementine author Sara Pennypacker, this is a poignant middle-grade novel about two foster children who must find a way to work together in order to survive.

Eleven-year-old Stella misses her (unreliable) mom, but she loves it at great-aunt Louise's house. Louise lives on Cape Cod, where Stella hopes her mom will someday come and settle down. The only problem? Angel, the foster kid Louise has taken in. The two girls live together but there's no way they'll ever be friends.

Then Louise suddenly passes away one morning--and Stella and Angel decide not to tell anyone. Now they have to depend on each other for survival. Now they are forced to trust each other with the biggest secret ever.

With great empathy and humor, Sara Pennypacker tells the story of two very different girls who unexpectedly become each other's true family.

Author Notes

Before becoming an author, Sara Young was a watercolor painter. She has written several children's books including the Clementine series, Stuart's Cape, Stuart Goes to School, and Dumbstruck under the name of Sara Pennypacker. Written under her real name, My Enemy's Cradle is her first adult novel. Her title Pax made The New York Times Best Seller List in 2017.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (2)

School Library Journal Review

Gr 4-6-Stella is living with her great-aunt Louise on Cape Cod because her mother has abrogated her maternal responsibilities. Angel, whose parents are both gone, is there as a foster child. Sharp-edged Angel and Heloise's Hints-embued Stella could not be more different, despite their shared lack of parents. They're spending the summer helping Louise run a small group of vacation cottages and wondering what will happen next. What occurs, however, is completely unexpected. Louise dies. Facing an uncertain future, Stella and Angel have to make some choices. Their first choice-to conceal the death-is a bad one. It leads to additional decisions-good and bad-that gradually unite the girls as they work to survive and begin to understand just what "family" means. Pennypacker's heart-touching book (Baltzer + Bray, 2013) features a summer in which adults play only bit parts and the girls uncover their own strengths. At times touching and suspenseful, this is an exceptional story and Jenna Lamia reads it in Stella's voice, with other characters sporting the accents of Boston and Portugal. She brings the tale to life and makes listeners truly care about Stella, Angel, and their fate.-Teresa Bateman, Brigadoon Elementary, Federal Way, WA (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publisher's Weekly Review

Two dissimilar girls forge a genuine friendship under strenuous circumstances in Pennypacker's memorable, tense novel. The story unfolds in the fresh, credible voice of 11-year-old Stella, who's been taken from her unstable single mother and sent to live with her great-aunt Louise, also caregiver to an orphaned foster child named Angel. The girls barely speak to each other until Louise unexpectedly dies and, fearing they'll be placed in another foster home, they bury her body in the garden and try to hide that she has died. Throughout, Pennypacker (the Clementine series) skillfully meshes the poignant and the comedic. Identifying with Louise's blueberry bushes ("I knew how it felt when the one person tending you disappeared"), Stella vows to save them from lethal gypsy moths. Simul-taneously becoming self-sufficient and dependent on one another, Stella and Angel bond as they take over Louise's housecleaning job and try to stave off starvation. Beautifully evoked, the novel's Cape Cod setting plays a focal role in this richly layered tale of loss, resiliency, and belonging. Ages 8-12. Agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.