Very sweet book with wonderful themes and characters. I could definitely see using this book with a book club!

Would be a fun read aloud for upper elementary grades. Humor and light-hearted balanced with the grief of the story. Nice twist at the end.

Crown Books for Young Readers and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of Lemons. I voluntarily chose to review this book and my opinion is freely given.

Lemonade Liberty Witt is a ten year old girl that can usually turn sour moments in life sweet, but that all changes when her mother dies. Forced to leave her home and move in with a grandfather that she has never known, will Lem be able to find happiness again?

Lemons tackles a difficult subject, so parents should be prepared to answer questions if the need arises. Lemonade meets a grandfather and makes a friend in the same day. Tobin has faced a similar loss in his own life, as his father did not return from Vietnam. Tobin has latched on to the local craze of looking for Bigfoot and ropes Lem into his cause. Tobin's quirkiness makes him a target for bullying, which is not all that different from what kids might face today. The biggest problem that I had with the book is that the author glosses over the details. She throws Lemonade into the deep end, literally, and gives her background very little context. The reasons behind Lemonade and Charlie never meeting, Tobin's father and his issues, and how the social work department was even able to find Charlie when he was estranged from his daughter was never explored. This is a book for children, so these small issues might not bother them, but I was bothered by the fact that the author sacrificed the background of her characters to tell the story of Bigfoot. Overall, Lemons has good character development and may appeal to the target audience.

I found the way that Melissa handled the grief in the story very efficiently, come to find out Melissa herself is a child therapist. Which I think gives great insight to students about how she wrote the way she did. The characters are all likable and throughout the story you grow more and more involved. The communication in the story was a great example for all students and something that all kids need to learn and be able to achieve. If you were a fan of A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness, I think you'll love this one too. It has the same powerful message, even though its great on its own, and I would highly recommend it.

This is a very charming MG with a wonderful friendship at the heart of it. It's also about grief, while being heart-warming and funny.

Lemonade Liberty Witt finds herself on a new adventure that will help her find herself again after her mother dies. Lem is sent to her grandfathers home whom she has never met because of a falling out he and her mother had. As Lem gets closer to her knew home she spots a large bigfoot statue and really starts wondering about where she is going.

Then see meets her grandfather and things are just so different, soon after that she meets Tobin a somewhat over excited and slightly bossy neighbor kid who is the sole member of Bigfoot Detective, Inc. He pretty much pushes her into being his assistant and since she has nothing better to do with her summer she becomes his employee.  They go off on Bigfoot sightings and one of their regulars is Mrs. Dickerson who lost her husband and is a bit lonely cause they never find any evidence of Bigfoot there but she always has warm cookies for them to eat.

Lemons is a great story about finding yourself after a loss, finding new friends and a way to cope with your new surroundings. It deals with a lot of issues that young kids deal with these days. I really enjoyed the 1970's setting and the quirky and fun characters. Lemonade learns to take the lemons in her life and make...well Lemonade! :)

Great for young children!

It's only been a few years since the famous Bigfoot photo swept the country and Tobin knows there are more around which is why he started the Bigfoot Detectives, Inc. When Lemonade moves to town after the death of her mother Tobin is hesitant to let her help him but together they make a great team.

The two characters together are great. Both help each other - Lemonade helps Tobin become a bit more social while Tobin helps Lemonade as she works through the death of her mother and adjusting to her new life. Together they solve one mystery and get clues about another.

All in all a fun read with some nice twists and a great ending.

If you read me, you know I love my kid lit, and this book was a great addition to that popular genre. Fun to read with a story that is both humorous yet touching, LEMONS is one I will be recommending at my school!
Thank you for my review copy!

Lemons

by Melissa Savage

Lemons is a delightful chapter book intended for children ages 8-12. As an adult, I loved it, and I will purchase it for my grandchildren.

Lemons features Lemonade Liberty Witt, a young girl whose mother has passed away. Suddenly “Lem’s” whole life is turned upside down. She meets her grandfather, Charlie, for the first time when she moves in with him. Her first friend in her new town is Tobin who founded and is president of Bigfoot Detectives, Inc.

I laughed and cried as Lem and Tobin along with Charlie and Tobin’s mother, Debbie, live out the pain of losing their respective loved ones, at different times and in different ways. They help each other in their struggles and work to make lemonade out of lemons. The relationship of Lem and Tobin and their search for Bigfoot is both humorous and touching.

I recommend Lemons for independent reading or as a story to share in the classroom or with a parent. It explores issues of grief and the aftermath of expressions of grief for both adults and children. This book shows bullying from the perspective of a child who is socially awkward and what a friend can do to help. The tale abounds with humor as the dynamic duo spend the summer getting to know each other as they search for evidence of Bigfoot.

I would like to extend my thanks to netgalley.com and to Random House (Crown Books) for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 5/5

Category: Children’s Fiction (Middle Grades)

Notes: provides many opportunities for discussions about feelings and how we express them

Publication: May 2, 2017—Random House (Crown Books)

Memorable Lines:

The wrinkles are so deep and twisty, each one is like a road map to all the different stories of her life.

[Lemon, thinking about her mother:] It’s an important name. The most important name in the whole universe. I say it out loud every day so the universe remembers how important it is, and that it still matters to someone. And also so it doesn’t disappear. Like she did.

“So we let all our sad and mad feelings take over, and instead of loving and supporting each other, we hurt each other with our words.”

The most important thing to remember is to have gratitude for those we love and those who love us. Even if it’s not for the amount of time we had expected or wished for. If you don’t, you can be washed away by the sadness.

Lemonade Liberty Witt has just moved in with her estranged grandfather after the death of her mother. She has had to leave San Francisco and all her friends and everything she knows to live in the Bigfoot Capital of the World, Willow Creek, California. Lemonade has never met her grandpa Charlie and doesn’t really want to leave her life behind. She is also missing her mother terribly.

Willow Creek is where the famous Patterson-Gimlin film was made and where her grandpa runs a bigfoot related store. The first person Lemonade meets is Tobin, who is obsessed with bigfoot. Tobin Sky is the CEO of Bigfoot Detectives, Inc. and invites Lemonade to become his assistant. Lemonade and Tobin investigate bigfoot sightings in the area and actually make a few discoveries. They discover footprints and hair samples and they might actually see a bigfoot.

Lemonade and Tobin are both dealing with loss. Lemonade with the loss of her mother and Tobin with the loss of his father. Tobin’s father was a prisoner of war in Vietnam and disappeared again on his way home. Tobin holds out hope that one day his dad will come home again. Lemonade’s loss is more permanent since her mother died of cancer. She has to figure out how to deal with the volcano of grief and rage that resides inside of her and sometimes bubbles up all over those closest to her. Because Charlie and Tobin are the closest they are often subject to her moods. Charlie is also dealing with the loss of his daughter and the fact that they will never be able to repair their rift now that she is gone. There is a lot of sadness in these characters, but there is also a lot of love and forgiveness and hope for the future.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley.

Friends, this is an absolutely wonderful story. You all know that I consistently praise Middle Grade books for dealing so well with life lessons, and tough topics. Lemons is a shining example of exactly that. It was fitting, I think, that I was working my way through my own loss right around the time I was in the middle of reading this book. Middle Grade or not, this book really helped me sort things out. As Lemonade learned and grew, I worked my way through my issues right along with her. Which should tell you how wonderfully written Melissa Savage's book really is. Lemons is a wonderful story, no matter what age group you happen to fall in.

Lemonade Liberty Witt is the kind of character that I fall instantly in love with, every time. She's quirky, fiesty, and strong in a way that only young people who have suffered an unexpected loss can be. At the same time, she's every one of us no matter what our age. She's lost, confused, hurt, and feels like she may be drowning in her own sorrow. Tough on the outside, hurting on the inside, and just trying to make it all okay. I felt for her so deeply, and loved her all the more for it.

On the flip side is darling Tobin. Dealing with his own loss, in a completely different way, and just as quirky and original as Lemonade. When these two met, I just knew exciting things were going to happen. The fact that the backdrop of this story includes Bigfoot hunting? Well, that just made it all the more perfect. I wanted to believe in them just as much as Tobin did, and I wasn't at all disappointed.

Honestly though, I could gush about this book for paragraph upon paragraph. I loved the relationships between the characters, the unexpected friendships that were made, and the fact that everyone seemed to care so much for one another. I won't lie, I teared up more than a few times while reading this. It's tough not to when you're remembering the good times about people who have passed. Whether they are happy tears or sad tears, well, I'll let Lemonade school you on that.

I highly recommend this book to any young reader out there, and think it would make an excellent parent-child buddy read. Give it a shot! You might be pleasantly surprised at what you find.

In some ways, this is a standard fish out of water story. Lem wishes for her old life back even as she begins to adjust to the new. The cryptid aspect gives it some freshness. It's historical in setting, and needs to be for the sake of certain plot elements, but doesn't feel particularly historical. This has two very different effects on the book. on the one hand, it gives it an air of universality. We don't get stock on the history elements so it's easier for modern readers to relate. On the other hand, because we sometimes forget that this is set in the late 60s, those historical elements that do come through can be a bit jarring. Or we find ourselves wondering why the characters don't, say, Google a subject. This can leave the reader feeling slightly off kilter. Still, it takes itself seriously and thus doesn't belittle the thoughts, emotions, and experiences of the reader.

cute story about an orphan funding a new home in northern California with her estranged grandfather, his Bigfoot obsessed young neighbor and a cast of other characters. it's set in the 1970s which is not immediately obvious but you feel some weird time slippage until you figure it out.

I smiled, I cried, I rooted for them to find Bigfoot or at least eat more cookies.

good for 3rd to 5th graders.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via netgalley.

Interview: Melissa Savage honors her son’s memory in Lemons

Kids have a quiet wisdom about them, says Lemons author Melissa Savage.

“[Kids] have an honest understanding of the world and a resilience that is so wonderful,” Melissa told Cracking the Cover. “Sometimes, as adults we can lose that somewhere along the way. I learn from them every day. Working with children and writing for children reminds me how to stay focused on hope and resilience and that pure joy for the little things in life.”

Melissa’s debut novel, Lemons, is the embodiment of that focus. Lemons follows Lemonade Liberty Witt as she moves in with a grandfather she’s never met after her mother passes away. Willow Creek, Calif., Bigfoot capital of the world, is nothing like San Francisco, and Lem is determined to make her stay there as short as possible. When Tobin Sky, CEO of Bigfoot Detectives Inc., asks Lem to be his assistant for the summer, Lem reluctantly accepts. But as the two work to capture Bigfoot on film, Lem starts to realize that maybe Willow Creek is just what she needs.

In Lemons, Melissa set out to write a story about a girl named Lemonade who would battle adversity and come across a life’s lemon that she would struggle with. Melissa knows only too well about grief. In 2012, the author and her husband lost their 9-month-old son. She pulled from that, as well as the grief of others she met along her own journey of healing.

“Lemons Melissa SavageSo many people have a story of loss that affects them very deeply, yet we often feel isolated in our grief because people don’t want to talk about it or hear about it,” Melissa said. “I wanted to write a story about embracing the gifts we’ve been given despite a loss and how sharing beautiful memories together, rather than hiding from the memories, can be very healing.”

Lem isn’t the only one in Lemons that’s hurting. There are other stories, including that of Tobin, that needed to be told.

Tobin is a special character for Melissa because he’s named after her son. “Just like Lemonade wanting her mother to remain a part of this world, I want my son to remain a part of this world too,” Melissa said.

The character Tobin is whom Melissa imagined her son, Tobin, would grow up to be. “Stoic and brave, as he was, but also scientific like his Dad and as big a fan of Bigfoot and cryptozoology as his Mommy! Losing someone you love is an extremely tough lemon, as Lem experiences in the story, and she struggles to find how to make lemonade again. For me, sharing my son’s name and spirit with children all over the world is one of the ways I’ve learned to make my own lemonade.”

In addition to being a writer, Melissa is also a child and family therapist. Her writing mirrors the issues many children grapple with. “Most recently I’ve worked with children and families who have struggled with the loss of a loved one,” she said. “Although these subjects are heavy, there is always hope in healing from adversity and more than anything, I want to portray that in every story I create. When a child comes to me and tells me he/she has gone through the same thing or that they know someone who did, I know they are telling me because this aspect of the book resonated with them. And more than anything I’d like kids to know they are not alone in whatever they may be going through.”

Despite the heavy subject matters Melissa chooses to embrace, she also knows there must be a balance. In Lemons, that balance came in the form of Bigfoot. Melissa is fascinated when scientists discover unknown facts about our planet and beyond. That includes species of animals that are extinct, or maybe never existed in the first place.

“That makes the mystery of Bigfoot even more intriguing and fun,” Melissa said. “I wanted to share that with kids set in the very place where Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin claimed to have filmed a real Bigfoot in 1967.”

Lemons is set in 1975 to play off the original film and to remove all modern-day technology from the Bigfoot search. “As wonderful as technology is, and as helpful as it is for all of us, including myself, I think it keeps us tied to screens more than we should be,” she said. “I wanted this to be a fun mystery and intriguing adventure set outside in the very place where the Patterson-Gimlin film was originally created back in 1967.”

A touching and hearwarming story of a young girl who has lost everything and finds love and friendship searching for Bigfoot.

Lemonade Liberty Witt moves to Willow Creek, California to live with her grandfather after her mother dies. Willow Creek is known for one thing: Bigfoot sightings. As soon as she arrives, she meets Tobin Sky, a ten-year-old boy who created the company Bigfoot Detectives Inc. Tobin spends a lot of time with Lemonade’s grandfather, Charlie, and he runs his business out of Charlie’s garage. Various people who live in the town call Tobin to report Bigfoot sightings on their property. Mrs. Dickerson phones regularly with new evidence, and freshly baked cookies for the two kids. While Lemonade has to learn to cope with the loss of her mother, Tobin feels the space left by his father. His father was drafted into the Vietnam War five years earlier, but he still hasn’t returned. Lemonade and Tobin go on expeditions into the forest to try and get the coveted photo of Bigfoot.

I really enjoyed this story. It was quite funny when Tobin and Lemonade were searching for Bigfoot. Especially when Mrs. Dickerson kept calling them over for her suspected sightings, but she really just wanted to share her baking with them.

At first, I thought Lemonade was going to be in foster care in the story. It seems like that when her social worker drove her to live with Charlie. But it eventually became apparent that she was moving in with her grandfather because her mother passed away. I was glad it deviated from the cliche of the main character being in foster care. I have read so many books with that premise lately so I’m glad this one was different.

I wasn’t sure when the story was happening until quite a few pages into it. It was set in 1975, but it could have been happening now. I usually like this timeless quality, but it’s not good when there isn’t any indication of when the story is actually happening.

This is a cute and funny story, great for middle grade readers!

Lemons is a early middle grade novel about family, friendship and believing. It touches on some tough topics such as Lemonade's mother's death, the Vietnam War and bullying, but does not immerse readers in them as do many of the more complex and deeper novels being published today. That is what makes this a good fit for readers at the lowest end of middle grade (age 8) up through early 5th grade. For older readers looking for a Bigfoot novel, I highly recommend The Littlest Bigfoot by Jennifer Weiner. Or, these two could be a really interesting pairing for a 4th or 5th grade book club or lit circle. It has some cute messages about perseverance and optimism.

One issue I had with the book is that it's set in the 70's and references the Vietnam War and PTSD, but just as easily could have been set in current day and referenced Afghanistan - the time setting was only occasionally referenced during the story and seemed almost to be an afterthought. I liked (didn't love) this book, but definitely know some 3rd and 4th graders who will really enjoy it. I will probably purchase a paperback copy for my library in the future.

Cute kids book about searching for Bigfoot and finding love and family. Thanks Netgalley!

A sweet and sour book for older elementary kids, the story revolves around big issues, like losing a parent, redefining a family, bullying, courage, and hope. There is nothing earth-shattering or particularly revelatory about Lemons, but it is paced nicely, easy to read, and the audience will surely recognize a little bit of themselves in each character. Humorous and serious, it is a good balance.