Tag: Leila Howland

REVIEW: The Silver Moon of Summer by Leila Howland

REVIEW: The Silver Moon of Summer by Leila Howland

Posted on by Jaymie

Summary

The Silver Sisters are back in Pruett, Massachusetts to spend a couple weeks with their Aunt Sunny. Marigold (14), Zinnie (13), and Lily (7) are ready for another summer of East Coast adventures and self-discovery.

Marigold auditions for a part in a TV show shooting in Pruett. While the TV filming is making life difficult for her maybe-boyfriend, Peter, it gives Marigold a chance to make a new friend who will be at her performing arts school in the fall.

Zinnie is going to spend the summer working on her blog. She hopes the school writing assignment will help her earn the job of Editor in Chief for the school’s literary journal. But she has to find adventures around Pruett to write about.

Lily has become an animal expert over the last year. She loves her naturalist camp at Pruett, and she teaches her family all sorts of things about animals. But an even bigger job this summer is reminding her big sisters not to fight. Their fights have caused major trouble over the last two summers. Is it even possible for Marigold and Zinnie to NOT fight for two whole weeks?

Review

This is a lovely third installment for this terrific middle grade series about family and identity. The girls have grown up nicely over the three books. They each have found their own niche (acting, writing, science), but the push and pull between Marigold and Zinnie is still there. Sisters so close in age vacillate  between being best friends and needing their own space. Marigold and Zinnie seem very normal in their sisterly dynamic.

Romance is a bigger factor in this story than in previous books as both Marigold and Zinnie hope their friendships with Peter and Max respectively can become something more this summer. This is still kept at an appropriate level (hand holding, declarations of “like,” quick kisses) for the book’s target audience.

These books are ideal summer reads – the setting is perfect – or fall reads for kids who want to relive the freedom of summer. The content is realistic, and the conflicts keep the story moving while still being “light” in tone. Great fun in store for readers of all three books in this series. (Some readers/families may raise a red flag at the use of a Ouija board by the girls in one scene.) I’ve been recommending this series to a lot of folks this year.

Rating: ♥♥♥♥

REVIEW: The Brightest Stars of Summer by Leila Howland

REVIEW: The Brightest Stars of Summer by Leila Howland

Posted on by Jaymie

Summary

Book 2 in the Silver Sisters series finds Marigold, Zinnie and Lilly headed back to Massachusetts to visit their great-aunt, Sunny, and help her get ready for her wedding.

A lot has happened in the last year since they summered with Aunt Sunny. Marigold had a part in a huge movie, but it got cut out. She found seventh grade to be harder than she expected. There are cliques to negotiate and her “stardom” doesn’t seem to make her as popular as she expected.

Zinnie has embraced her passion for writing. She had planned to go to a writer’s camp for the summer before the trip to Massachusetts came up. Without the camp, she is on her own to come up with an amazing story that will get her one of 8 precious spots in a writing group at school. She hopes her time in Massachusetts will inspire a great story.

As each of the older sisters wrestles with her identity, with crushes, and with the relationship with the other, the Silver Sisters are in for a summer of growing and changing.

Review

I liked this one ever more than I liked book 1, The Forget-Me-Not Summer. The girls are older and are digging deeper into their identity – a theme I love in books for kids. Marigold decides to be the opposite of who she really is, and in the process learns new things about herself.

Zinnie wrestles with who she is as a writer. Her natural style doesn’t seem to fit the kind of writing done by the writing group. So she also tries to be something she is not. She learns things about herself as a writer along the way.

The girls hit some really rough moments in their relationship as sisters. In the end, their healing and reconciliation comes in part when they accept themselves for who they are and use their gifts to make things right.

Terrific story! Great series! Book 3, The Silver Moon of Summer released in June.

Rating: ♥♥♥♥½

REVIEW: The Forget-Me-Not Summer by Leila Howland

REVIEW: The Forget-Me-Not Summer by Leila Howland

Posted on by Jaymie

Summary

Marigold, Zinnia and Lily are sisters living in Los Angeles with their parents. Their dad is a screenwriter, and their mom was a film editor. Both parents get work opportunities at the same time and decide to send the girls to stay with family in Massachusetts for three weeks in the summer.

Marigold is devastated. At 12-years-old, she’s just gotten an agent for her acting career. She is desperate to try out for a part in a movie based on her favorite books. This trip out east is ruining her career plans.

A year younger than Marigold, Zinnia tries to follow in her sister’s footsteps. She tries acting, She begs to go out with Marigold and her friends. And like most big sisters, Marigold is convinced that Zinnia is trying to ruin her life.

Massachusetts will give each of the girls an opportunity to discover themselves a little more as they get to know their Aunt Sunny and their East Coast vacation  home.

Review

This is a great family story! The close age between Marigold and Zinnia makes their relationship prone to highs and lows. At times the girls are the best of friends. Zinnia does her best, both in LA and Massachusetts, to help Marigold achieve her dreams. At the same time, Marigold also longs for some space to do her own thing and be her own person without her sister-shaped shadow.

Zinnia feels out of step with her beautiful older sister and adorable baby sister. While at times she recognizes Marigold’s meanness and attitude, she also wants to be just like her in some ways. The summer trip gives Zinnia a chance to step out from behind Marigold and find her own “voice.”

The author does a good job of making this story about the growth that takes place for both of the girls pretty equally. The rest of the characters fill in nicely around the girls. The adults coach and mentor and correct, but don’t fix things. This is a nice, healthy example of family.

There are three books in this series. Book 2 is The Brightest Stars of Summer, and book 3 is The Silver Moon of Summer and comes out today. I will definitely be adding both of these books to my summer reading TBR!

Rating: ♥♥♥♥