Summer in the City

Husband-and-wife team Marie-Louise Gay and David Homel create a sequel to the enormously popular Travels with My Family and On the Road Again! — but with a twist. This time Charlie and his family stay home, and find adventure in their own Montreal neighborhood.

Charlie can’t wait for school to be over. But he’s wondering what particular vacation ordeal his parents have lined up for the family this summer. Canoeing with alligators in Okefenokee? Getting caught in the middle of a revolutionary shootout in Mexico? Or perhaps another trip abroad?

Turns out, this summer the family is staying put, in their hometown. Montreal, Canada. A “staycation,” his parents call it. Charlie is doubtful at first but, ever resourceful, decides that there may be adventures and profit to be had in his own neighborhood.

And there are. A campout in the backyard brings him in contact with more than one kind of wildlife, a sudden summer storm floods the expressway, various pet-sitting gigs turn almost-disastrous, and a baseball game goes awry when various intruders storm the infield — from would-be medieval knights and an over-eager ice-cream vendor to a fly-ball-catching Doberman. Then of course there’s looking after his little brother, Max, who is always a catastrophe-in-the-making.

Key Text Features
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key text features

Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.9
Compare and contrast the themes, settings, and plots of stories written by the same author about the same or similar characters (e.g., in books from a series).

MARIE-LOUISE GAY est une autrice et illustratrice de renommée mondiale, reconnue pour ses livres « Stella et Sam » ainsi qu’Un million de questions!, Fern and Horn, Mustafa et Les trois frères.

DAVID HOMEL is an award-winning novelist, screenwriter, journalist and translator. He has won the Governor General’s Award for translation, the Hugh MacLennan Prize and the Jewish Public Library Award for fiction.

• OLA Best BetCommended 2012