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All Clear by Connie Willis
Cherry Heaven by L.J. Adlington
The Color Master: Stories by Aimee Bender
The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes by DuBose Heyward
Curses! Foiled Again by Jane Yolen
Ghostbusters: Total Containment by Erik Burnham
The Girls from the Revolutionary Cantina by Mike Padilla
Grumpy Cat: A Grumpy Book by Grumpy Cat
The Hidden Spring by Clarence Budington Kelland
Hilda and the Bird Parade by Luke Pearson
The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa
How to Paint a Cat by Rebecca M. Hale
Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai
Journal of a UFO Investigator by David Halperin
Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett
Olivia and the Fairy Princesses by Ian Falconer
Operation Redwood by S. Terrell French
Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons by Eric Litwin
Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow
The Return of Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke
Simon's Cat in Kitten Chaos by Simon Tofield
The Summer Experiment by Cathie Pelletier
Summer Knight by Jim Butcher
3 Below by Patrick Carman
Touchstone by Laurie R. King
Under the Dome by Stephen King
The Vampire's Visit by David A. Poulsen
xxxHolic Volume 13 by CLAMP

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Comments for The Summer Experiment

The Summer Experiment: 08/12/14

cover art

The Summer Experiment by Cathie Pelletier is a tween book about a girl hoping to one-up her nemesis, Henry, at the local science fair. She believes the recent return of UFO sightings might make the perfect project.

The book unfolds as a series of first person narrated vignettes about life in the very northern reaches of Maine. It's more Maine than even Stephen King would be comfortable with, is one way Roberta describes it. Her town is small, isolated and doubles in size every summer with vacationers.

In the background of all of this, is the reported return of the mysterious lights, believed by some (including the sheriff) to be extra terrestrials. Roberta sees the commotion these lights is causing as a means to distract Henry from his science fair project. It's not necessarily that she wants to win, but it's very clear that she doesn't want him to win again.

In terms of the narrative ebb and flow and Roberta's narrative voice, The Summer Experiment thematically complements A Separate Peace (1959) by John Knowles. It has a similar gut wrenching scene at the climax too.

Four stars

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