Liz Garton Scanlon's ability to slip in small, profound statements that make the reader stop to think (particularly late in the book).It's just a relationship between two people of very different interests, each going through a stressful time. Their relationship is not that idealized boy-girl friendship that you see in books sometimes, nor is it a 'boy-girl' relationship. Though the two come to care about one another, they also argue, over big and little things. The relationship between Paul and Ivy.Like this: '(Personally, I think if you're an only child, you should automatically be issued a dog when you're born, as a consolation prize, but my mama and daddy disagree.)' I liked her sense of humor, and her tendency towards little asides. Having lived for a time in Texas, I was able to read this book, and hear Ivy's accent in my head.

Marla Frazee's golden cover image (I would recognize her illustration style anywhere).Here are the things I liked most about The Great Good Summer, in no particular order: Ivy and Paul, despite their very different personalities, end up taking an impulsive road trip to Florida in search of both Ivy's mother and Cape Canaveral. Ivy becomes friends with Paul Dobbs, a classmate who is obsessed with space and devastated by the end of NASA's Space Shuttle program. Ivy is having a difficult summer because her mother has run off to Panhandle, Florida with a fundamentalist preacher called Hallelujah Dave. The Great Good Summer is the story of 12-year-old Ivy Green, who lives in a small town in Texas. The Great Good Summer is the first novel by Liz Garton Scanlon, author of several picture books (including All the World, which I adore, and The Good-Pie Party, which I reviewed here).

All the world by liz garton scanlon