Lemons: 09/16/18

In Lemons by Melissa Savage, a single mom decided to make the best of an unexpected situation and named her daughter Lemonade. Now Lemonade finds herself an orphan, shipped off to live with a grandfather she doesn't remember, in the redwoods north of Eureka. The only thing going for this place is a supposed Big Foot sighting.

Lemonade herself now has to learn how to make do. She has to learn how to live with her gruff grandfather. Before she gets a chance to make her own friends, she's paired up with a boy with is running a Big Foot investigation service for the town. His goal is to get solid proof — something better than that famous blurry photo — to really put his town on the map.

All of this is set against the backdrop of the late 1970s, to the early 1980s. The Vietnam War has been over for some time but it's still fresh in the minds of the adults who lived through it. In the same regard it's not fresh in the minds of the children in the book, beyond maybe having a parent who died in the war.

The three separate plot threads: Lemonade as an orphan, the Big Foot Sightings, and the lingering effects of the Vietnam War all come together in a delightful unexpected way.

Five stars

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