I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. This was an okay read, better suited for young ones, but I felt that the story moved too slow.

Oh my goodness I want to give this book a giant hug! Such a charming and endearing read that will make your heart melt. A perfect example of a children's book that is perfect for a reader of any age. Really well done!

I respect any book that talks frankly about homelessness and disappointment in our parents, the two central themes in this book. I also liked the use of stories as a coded way for the dad to talk about their mother and their divorce. It may be an emotionally tough read for a sensitive child but certainly has it's place in a middle grade collection.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book early. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I enjoyed the storytelling aspect of this book and I can think of a few of my students who would absolutely love this story.

However, for me it felt a little slow at times and I found myself not that invested in the characters and what was happening in the story.

Some books are entertaining while others teach us things. This was a bit of both with incredible storytelling mixed in. And by that I mean the characters told stories to make reality more palpable. The author really pulled me in emotionally and at times I had to step away to process things. I was never sure where we were going, and neither did Claire or her father.
I think this story will stay with me for a long time. There were so many levels to think about. Homelessness, hope, adventure, friendship, family, reality, and the power of storytelling.
Side note- I read this during the Coronavirus while in isolation at home. It made this story much more real and socially important.

Wrong Way Summer is a fantastic story of family and new adventures. Young readers will connect to Claire’s struggles with growing up and learning her own truth. Recommended.

This book had a strange concept for me at first but I feel like a the book went along just like Claire I found myself understand it a lot more. This book is defiantly something that I probably wouldn't have read if I saw it within a bookstore as it moves quite slowly and took me a while to grasp.

Claire is twelve and her brother Patrick is eight, too young to understand that their mother left them with their dad after Claire discovered divorce papers after she'd gone.



Their dad 'sells' their house and buys a van for them to live in as they road trip around the people he knows from his past.



As Claire misses home, her friend Ronnie and her brother Mike who Claire crushes on, she wants to know, where is the summer heading, will they be finding their mum?



Her dad is a vivid storyteller and tells a continuous story as the book goes on too the kids and it was an adventure for sure as their dad takes them round his old friends and family members rebuilding relationships trying to move on and make things better for his kids. It was a great book to show how desperate times doesn't mean everything isn't salvageable and that moving on can be rough but positive for the future.



Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!

What a sweet, delightful story about adventure and family. It was so fun to watch how Claire, her dad and her brother’s relationships evolved with each other throughout their story and road trip.I really loved all of the magical and fantastical stories Claire’s dad told her, it made this story so much more different than anything I’ve ever read. For a heartwarming story that kids and adults alike will enjoy, grab Wrong Way Summer when it makes its debut this April!

Thank you to Heidi Lang, Amulet Books and NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book!