Customer Reviews

Indian Summer

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Indian Summer
Tracy Richardson
Luminis Books, Jul 2009, $11.95
http://www.luminisbooks.com
ISBN: 9781935462255

Twelve-year-old Marcie Horton looks forward to the last day of school especially no math for the summer. The last day of school means the fun symbolic Children's Fair in which she always wins the foot race. However, as she pedals up the hill she dreads spending a few boring weeks at the isolated cottage of Mamaw and Poppy on Lake Pappakeechee.

At her grandparents' cottage, Marcie is bored until she learns university President Swyndall plans to have the nearby James Woods torn down for a development project. She feels strongly opposed to destroying this ancient thriving forest. Encouraged by a Native American Adena girl's spirit, Marcie pushes to find a way to prevent the destruction of the pristine woods. At the same time, she becomes friends with Kaitlyn Swyndall, daughter of her opponent, as they are part of the same team for the upcoming regatta. Finally Marcie fears her intervention could cost her parents their jobs as each works at the university.

This is an enjoyable young adult tale that focuses on how a courageous but frightened tweener sees things in an adult world. Marcie is terrific as she fears her intrusion will harm her parents since she does not fully comprehend tenure, but also feels she must do the right thing re the Adena girl's spirit. Although the solution to how she earns the respect of the Swyndall family simplifies a complex issue of development vs. environment and ultimately heritage, middle school fans will enjoy Marcie's charming Indian Summer.

Harriet Klausner

Indian Summer is targeted at the YA or "tweener" audience and at 212 pages, this slim paperback should not be intimidating to younger readers. I recently had the opportunity to read and review an advanced copy of this book by Tracy Richardson.

The protagonist, twelve-year-old Marcie Horton, faces a number of conflicts and personal challenges during summer vacation at her grandparents' cottage along Lake Pappakeechee in Indiana.

What sets Indian Summer apart is Richardson's approach. Unlike many stories in this genre, Richardson presents conflicts and issues that are subtly shaded with no clear good vs. bad, right vs. wrong. This real world treatment of complex social and environmental issues places Indian Summer a notch above similar stories.

Marcie's first conflict comes early in the story when she and her friends encounter a group of cliquish girls from school, and she subsequently finds herself thrown together with one of the girls, Kaitlyn Swyndall.

Richardson's ability to create complex, yet realistic relationships begins to be revealed at this point. Kaitlyn friendship offers access to the lake's exclusive yacht club and an opportunity to crew in the big regatta. In counterpoint, accepting it could place Marcie at odds with longtime friends. Adding yet another layer, Kaitlyn proves to be a nice, if somewhat shallow, individual.

To add to Marcie's confused and conflicted feelings, she discovers that Kaitlyn's father has secret plans to develop James Woods, a wilderness area and long time recreation destination of local residents. Her desire to aggressively fight development of the woods is complicated by the fact that Mr. Swyndall is president of the college where the both of Marcie's parents work.

Issues of loyalty, personal values, and integrity unfold as Marcie tries to balance the various conflicts. Robertson does an admirable job of presenting balanced views of the issues forcing Marcie to carefully weigh alternatives before acting.

To add additional depth and suspense to the story, Marcie begins to experience paranormal episodes in which she flies, interacts with an ancient Native American girl and senses that a close friend, miles away, is in critical need. This element contributes a dreamlike dimension to the story that is somewhat reminiscent of Robert McCammon's novel Boy's Life.

It is worthy of note that the story is written entirely in present tense from a third person, omnipotent point of view. This is an unusual combination and I must admit that it took several chapters to become accustomed to this style.

Overall, Indian Summer is a thoughtfully written story requiring the reader to consider a number of value judgments along the way. For the YA reader, it will be an entertaining and informative read.

Indian Summer
BY: Tracy Richardson
PUBLISHED BY: Luminis Books
PUBLISHED IN: 2010
ISBN: 978-1-935462-25-5
Pages: 200
Reviewed by Billy Burgess
Ages: Middle Grade

In "Indian Summer," Marcie Horton is a twelve-year-old who loves to win competitions, especially bike races. She's not looking forward to her summer vacation this year. She spending the summer at her grandparent's lake cottage on Lake Pappakeechee.

Kaitlyn Swyndall is the only other girl she knew there, but Kaitlyn is a rich, snobby girl. Marcia befriends some other kids at the lake, and is looking forward to the upcoming boat race.

The woods, James Woods, surrounding the lake is going to be torn down by a wealthy developer, Mr. Swyndall. He is the president of the university where Marcie Horton's parents teach, and he is also the father of Kaitlyn. Marcia is starting to like her, so things start to get complicated.

Marcia begins to have strange visions of a mysterious spirit. Could it be Indians?

"Indian Summer," is a easy, fast read. I read it in one sitting. The author likes to "tell" more often than "showing" in her writing. The plot is simple - a pre-teen girl tries to stop a wealthy developer from destroying the centuries-old forest. I've read dozens of similar plots before, this is nothing new. The ending of the book is predictable. The main character, Marcia, is fun, energetic and likeable. Despite the book's downfalls, I still enjoyed reading it.

Note: I would like to thank the Author for sending me this complimentary copy to review.

Standing against development can prove tough when your closest ally is incorporeal. "Indian Summer" tells the tale of Marcie Horton, a young girl spending the summer in her family's lake cottage. Embracing the forest around her, she soon fears that it will be demolished by development, and direct opposition to this development may lead to Marcie's parents being out of jobs. Finding solace in a spirit of the past, "Indian Summer" is a unique read middle school readers will relish.

The book Indian Summer is about this one girl named, Marcie
Horton. In the beginning of the book it starts off when
Marcie is having her last day of school party. Marcie is
riding her bike to the party and all of a sudden something
incredible happens. (If you want to know the incredible
thing you should start off by getting and then reading this
book, Indian Summer). Well anyway, Marcie does not know if
she is imagining it or if it is really happening. Then
Marcie is riding her bike normally again. Once Marcie gets
to the party she finds her best friend, Sara to hang out
with each other. Sara and Marcie race together with a few
other people. After the race is over Sara and Marcie go
inside a maze. In the middle of the race Marcie can't see
Sara any where. Marcie sees this one girl who is sort of
leading Marcie to the end of the maze. Right when Marcie
gets to the finish line the girl is gone. Marcie asks Sara
if she saw a girl come out of the maze, but Sara said,'no'
and Sara said,'You probably came out a different exit.'
'Yeah that's probably it.' Says Marcie. The party is over
and Marcie has to get up early to leave for her trip to her
grandparent's cottage. Usually Marcie has been having these
dreams about the incredible thing that happened in the
beginning of the book and a thing about her other friend
Katherine's dad about destroying woods that are important to
Marcie and her family. If you want to know more about this
book buy it and read it. Also this would be a good book for
people that like mysteries because it's fun to solve the
mysteries in this book before the answer are told.

This review that I'm writing about is from the book, Indian
Summer. First things first, I did like the book but did not
think it was the best book ever. In the book there is some
parts here and there that were confusing. For example there
was a part about how to use a boat and the particular parts.
Another thing that was confusing when the author used too
many he, she and them. I disliked that because I didn't
know the author was talking about. Even people who don't
like long books would like this book because once you start
you want to finish even though there's 200 pages in this
book. This book taught me a lot about Native Americans. If
you are one of those people that like to learn about Native
Americans I recommend this book to you. I still recommend
this book to others if you can wait from the boring parts to
the action parts. This book has more action parts than
boring parts. Right when you open to the first page the
action begins.

Reviewed by a young adult student reviewer
Flamingnet Book Reviews
[...]

Spending most of the summer at her grandparents house out at Lake Pappakeechee, Marcie Horton was not sure if her mothers plan for her to spend time with and go sailing with the "popular girl" Kaitlyn Swyndall would be a good idea. Suddenly she started having feelings of flying and being drawn to James Bay and the woods behind it, then finding out that her new friends dad, Mr. Swyndall, was planning on developing the woods into a new gated community of summer homes made Marcie more uneasy about her growing friendship with Kaitlyn. Bonds were forming while training with the Swyndall kids for the Regatta boat race to be held on July 4th, but how would Marcie's desire to prevent Mr. Swyndall from building in James woods effect their relationship? When the visions of another time and another girl continued to intrigue Marcie, she and her brother join forces with a family friend (Al Depena) to find a way to stop the development and possibly preserve something of import.


A slow start to this cute and inspirational story. While already dealing with several aspects of being a teenager, Marcie encounters some real moral issues. The way she deals with having visions, overhearing a private conversation and deciding how to stop the woods she loves from being lost to a developer, helps to show her what kind of person she is. She could have given in to peer pressure and left the whole issue alone, but instead she figured out what she felt was the right thing to do and did it. That seems to be the theme, even though she has a few bad moments (eavesdropping and stealing), overall she does what she thinks is right and it works out well. This is quite obviously a young adult book with a long introduction to Marcie and the other characters. While it takes a long time to get to the point, the story is still a interesting one with a few supernatural events and one exciting boat race that didn't end the way I expected it to. I really liked the interaction with Al, the deference that the younger characters offer him is very nice to see.

School is out and for twelve year-old Marcie Horton that means time at her grandparents' lake cabin while her university professor dad works with graduate students and her archeologist mom oversees a dig in Utah. Marcie will also be helping to crew a boat for the lake regatta with newly introduced Kaitlyn Swyndall, daughter of the wealthy and recently appointed university president.

Although looking forward to being with her grandparents and two brothers, Marcie, who wonders why she isn't comfortable with herself, is reluctant about spending time with Kaitlyn, who she perceives to have total self-confidence and be far more popular than she and her best friend Sara.

Marcie's assumption that she'll have a boring time at the lake proves otherwise. Instead she finds her time full, finding comfort in her long-known surroundings and excitement about new adventures and discoveries. Young adult readers will enjoy following Marcie as she grows in confidence while gently guided by the spirit of a young Native American girl to unlock mysteries about her special place, James Woods, and as she fights for something she feels strongly about.

Author Richardson does a nice job touching on and balancing the topics of peer pressure, adolescence, the environment, making responsible choices, living within "your means," and activism without seeming preachy. She also examines inter-class relationships nicely. The well-written plot of Indian Summer is interesting and readers will relate to Marcie.

by Judy Miller
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women