Puerto Rico native Clara moves to Albany with her family, though her Papi has gone back home to help rebuild after disastrous Hurricane Maria hit their island home. She's trying her best to fit in with her new classmates in New York, instead of letting herself get stuck in her memories of Puerto Rico. Jamie's snowboarding season gets cut short when he bombs a science test and is barred from the last two competitions of the year. His big brother, Lucas, is stationed in Afghanistan, and it's all Jamie can to do get himself from one day to the next while his brother is seeing horrors that Jamie can only begin to imagine. Jamie and Clara get forced to debate the consequences of a disastrous volcano eruption on 1815 because they got into a fight over whether good things could possible come out of a natural disaster.

Honestly, this book is super "preachy." I'm sure the vibe the author was going for was more fictional with an educational edge, but it feels really aggressive, and not in a fun and interesting way. Clara seems to just "get over" her PTSD from being in the middle of the hurricane. She's also SUPER judgey about everyone's motives, and how they act toward her, and everyone else. It's never resolved whether Jamie's grade actually improves, but suddenly his relationship with his dad is sunshine and rainbows, and he's going to a dancing snowboarding camp? Lucas seems to be miraculously healing from severe 3rd degree burns on his leg after repeated discussion of his possibly losing his leg. Molly, a side "mean girl" character doesn't seem to have any redeeming qualities until 10 pages from the end, and suddenly she's friendly to Clara.

The writing itself feels very juvenile, almost like the author was a 13 year old herself, rather than writing FOR a 13 year old. Everything gets wrapped up in a tidy little bow in the last chapter, and it feels 100% rushed. If one more character said they were going to "google" for information just one more time, I think I might have lost my mind.

I appreciate the amount of information I learned about the Tambora. I appreciate the desire to steer kids toward working to help the environment. But the way it was presented could really have used some more editing.

I received an Advanced Reader Copy via NetGalley in return for sharing my thoughts on this book. Thanks to the author and publisher for this opportunity!

Clara and her family moved to Albany after hurricane Maria destroyed her home and school in Puerto Rico. Jamie has lived in Albany his whole life and loves to snowboard. When their teacher, Mr. J, assigns a project on natural disasters, Jamie discovers the year without a summer happened back in 1815 when it snowed in June in Albany. Jamie is convinced it was all fun and games because people could snowboard and play in the snow. Clara tries telling him that natural disasters are anything but fun and games. Having lived through a devastating hurricane, Clara has more firsthand experience. Mr. J decides to let Clara and Jamie have a debate in class so that each can show their side. In the mean time, there is another volcanic eruption across the world and earthquakes in Puerto Rico. Clara uses her time in the debate to convince her class that there are more and more natural disasters happening and that they need to help do something about it. Both Jamie and Clara have a lot going on in their lives and have a hard time seeing eye to eye sometimes even though they really like each other. This book does a great job explaining natural disasters and ways young people can help. Jamie and Clara grow a lot throughout he book and are great characters with stories you don’t read about every day. This would be a great book for 4-8 graders.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy.

Honestly I don’t know how to feel about this book. I appreciate its middle grade but normally that doesn’t detract from me enjoying a book. But for this one? I don’t love it but I also don’t hate it, I’m kind of indifferent.

I found I tried to empathise with Clara but found her a really annoying character who was far harsher and judgemental to Jamie than was necessary. I did like how the debate between Clara and Jamie got them to appreciate each other’s viewpoints, and I liked how the book was a nice and easy and accessible way to teach people about the theme of natural disasters.

I did feel sometimes the book was quite…messy? Like the way Clara’s father is brought home from Puerto Rico at the drop of a hat, or the way that we keep hearing about Jamie’s brother being in the army in Afghanistan but there’s no real development on that theme.

I enjoyed the book enough to keep going and I am sure others will love this book more than I did. For me, it just sadly fell a bit flat.

I think it's an interesting book with a good plot and thought provoking themes. The characters are fleshed even if they sound a bit older and the plot is gripping.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

As a 6th grade Science teacher, I was so excited for this book. There was a lot going on with this book. We have the war in the Middle East and Climate Change on top of middle school drama. Oh yeah there was also immigration. A bit too much for a MS book. I wish the author edited just a bit more. Overall a good book.

This book deals with many heavy issues including natural disasters, climate change, being separated from a family member, and war. Clara and Jamie are likable eighth graders who engage in a scientific debate about the effects of the eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815. As a fan of snowboarding, Jamie thinks it's cool that the eruption blocked out the sun and caused it to snow in the summer. Meanwhile, Clara's recent displacement due to Hurricane Maria has only strengthened her resolve that all natural disasters are bad!

I enjoyed the debate aspect of this book and wished that it had gone on longer. The age of the characters felt a bit off and I think I would have found their dialogue and family situations to be more believable if the characters had been older. The end of the book also incorporates a plot with a character suffering from PTSD and being injured in war and that felt too depressing. A valiant effort was made to include multiple issues plaguing our world at the moment, but I think the story would have flowed better if the author had only focused on the issue of climate change. I would give this 3.5 stars.

The Year Without a Summer by Arlene Mark ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was very emotional and informative. The natural disasters all around us create havoc in millions of lives. This story revolves around two teens, Clara and Jaime, who start an argument over the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora. Jaime thinks the year without summer which followed due to the fatal eruption was a very wonderful thing. But Clara had witnessed a disaster- Hurricane Maria in her hometown Puerto Rico, where her father stayed back to help the residents. She still has nightmares about when she and her family had been stuck inside their house until the hurricane subsided. She was irritated by Jamie's excitement of how lucky people were to witness a year without summer, that they would have had so much fun.
I loved all the characters, Clara, Jaimie, Clara's brother, Mami, Mr J, Mrs Thurbus, Gus, Lucas, etc! Clara and Jaime's character development was awesome. The whole class eight turned to become such wonderful and confident kids, it was impressive. It feels amazing to read about kids worried about the future of our planet in midst of family problems. I thoroughly enjoyed the book.

There were some parts where I couldn't quite understand the situation described which made this book a four-star. Otherwise, the plot, writing style, characters and the world portrayed touched my heart.

This is a great YA novel with an interesting plot, well-sketched, believable characters, and a timely theme. The family and group dynamics are realistic and interesting. The reader becomes interested in the outcome which is not predictable.

The Year without a Summer has such an interesting concept. I enjoyed the way Arlene Mark uses the eruption of Tambora in 1815 as a jumping-off point for the premise of her novel. Two eighth graders, Jamie and Clara, have vastly different perspectives on natural disasters, and their science teacher, Mr. J, encourages them to debate about the benefits of the eruption versus the drawbacks. I love that idea! The book also poses important questions about the power of children to make a difference, about the impact of natural disasters, about war, and about climate change. These are all important topics for young readers to learn about.
For me, where the book falls short is in the character development, dialogue, and using some deus ex machina solutions for conflicts. It's good to have resolutions, but I felt that most of the conflicts were resolved easily and, in some cases, unrealistically.
Overall, I enjoyed the book for being different in concept, but I wasn't connected to the characters, especially Clara, and I found the story lagged in places and didn't have the type of immediacy I'm used to in children's literature.
2.5 stars

There are a few things that Jamie loves, snowboarding and his older brother Lucas, who is stationed in Afghanistan. Jamie is driven in his desire to become a professional snowboarder, unfortunately, he failed his latest science exam and risks being put on probation from the team. Clara Montalvo, recently relocated from Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria devastated her town and destroyed their home, her father has chosen to stay behind to help with repairs but has been hard to reach because the powerlines have been down. Clara is a responsible, hardworking student, who dreams of getting a scholarship to go to an Academy focused on architecture. She tries very hard to fit in with the other kids at school but has faced her share of hardships.

Currently they're learning about natural disasters in school, what contributes to them, and what consequences they pose to the environment and humans, they're to choose one disaster to discuss with the class. Jamie begins to explore volcanic eruptions and learns of the Volcano of Tambora which occurred in 1815 in Indonesia. It was known as the year without a summer because of the ash that was released into the atmosphere causing global climate anomalies, like below freezing temperatures in North America and snow during the summer. Jaime is excited to share his research with his classmates and highlights all the positives that came from the volcanic eruption, which sets of a heated debate with Clara as she feels he's not seeing the seriousness of the disaster and its impact on the people of Indonesia. Seeing the value of the two opposing views, their teacher assigns them both to debate the topic in class. As Jaime and Clara collaborate for their debate, news arrives of a new Hurricane in Puerto Rico and that Jamie's older brother was wounded and is returning home for rehabilitation. As they fear for their family, the two begin to find some commonalties among their differences.

The first thing that intrigued me about The Year Without a Summer was the cover and title, curious about how the snow fit with the summer vibes. The premise of the story was also very interesting combining three seemingly unrelated things, a historic volcano, a hurricane in Puerto Rico and a returning solider from Afghanistan. I must say the story as a whole blew me away. I loved all the historical aspects of the book and how relatable these teens were. I learned so much about the Volcano of Tambora and well natural disasters in general. The story addressed climate change and natural disasters but also gave options for how teens could advocate for change. The emphasis on the commonalities that the two teenagers shared, their kindness, focus on the future, and family hardships made them both easily relatable. I think I felt for Jamie the most and appreciated that the story didn't underscore the behavioral and emotional changes that occurred with his brother. While I find Jaime's wanting to get Lucas back to normal a realistic desire, it's something as a therapist that I've found difficult for loved ones to understand, that there is a new normal after an injury such as this. As a therapist, I like to think of it as the brain is making new pathways or connections. Overall, this was a highly engaging story and can see this appealing to kids interested in climate change. **A huge thank you to Sparkpress for the E-ARC**

Snowboarding team member and male eighth-grader Jamie has a sometimes verbally abusive father while Clara still is adapting to life in the continental USA after Hurricane Maria prompted her family's move from Puerto Rico.

The author introduced many serious issues in this book with eighth-grade protagonists, and for that I applaud her efforts by rounding up to a 4 star rating. I like having middle grade students concerned not only with earning good grades and navigating the turbulence of wanting freedom from parents while developing their own goals and interests but also being concerned about people in other nations, their country's involvement in wars, endangered wildlife, climate change, the need to help people suffering from natural disasters, and the different relationship Puerto Ricans have as American citizens from a different country that is a U.S. territory. In addition, Jamie's older brother helps young readers learn that military duty is not fun travel and war games, but can be sadness, life-changing injuries with IED's, brutality, PTSD, or even death. With alternating chapters between Clara and Jamie, this book could appeal to a wide range of characters. Whew, this author was ambitious. Despite all the serious subject matter, the action is such that the book is more likely to appeal to middle grade readers rather than the Y.A., which was included on the promotional description of the book.

However, the reasons that the book was not a 4 star for me as far as my enjoyment (granted, as an adult reader) are the following. Sometimes the action did not seem realistic; for example, what are the chances (page 138) that weak student Jamie knows - off the top of his head- about Lord Byron traveling to Switzerland and having Mary Shelley in his writing group who writes the book Frankenstein as part of that group's activities. Even though Jamie provides an explanation by wondering (page 140) how he had remembered all those people in the spotlight, it was not realistic since Jamie had been sweating the fact that he was not prepared for this classroom debate. Other times, the dialogue seemed stilted. For example, on page 138, Clara's mother responds to her daughter with four complete sentences- "He came, I said, I thought, I spoke." Also, Mrs. Montalvo prefaces too many of her conversations to Clara with "mi amor,." When the governor calls Clara on the telephone (page 245), he uses her last name whenever he addresses her and also introduces himself as "your governor." I think a governor would say this is Governor ____ (followed by their name, especially since Clara had written a letter to him. I found myself wishing there was greater variety in sentence style, having fewer sentences that began with pronouns: he said, she said; he did this, she does that. While these points may seem picky, they were continuous aspects of the book which began to detract some from my enjoyment of the plot.

The characters were really relatable and the messages throughout the book will be great for teens. I love the school setting and the romance as so many middle grade students want romance but aren’t quite ready for a full romantic story.

This mid grade title centers around Jamie and Clara, who are attracted to each other, but in that 8th grade way, aren't sure if they are friends or competitors. They get into a debate about Tambora, a volcanic eruption that caused the Year Without a Summer, and it becomes a school project. In the meantime, Clara's father is helping rebuild Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, and Jamie is dealing with his injured brother's return from Afghanistan. I thought there were a bit too many outside events going on, some unnecessary drama which at times had me rolling my eyes. Overall, I think those in that mid grade age bracket would enjoy this book.

Thanks to Net Galley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this novel.

This story follows two eighth grade students (very close to my own hometown!) who seemingly are complete opposites, but have much more in common than they think. Clara and Jamie end up being paired together to debate a particular natural disaster: the Tambora volcano eruption. Through their journey, we learn about Clara’s father stranded in Puerto Rico after a recent hurricane and Jamie’s brother recently home from active duty in Afghanistan, the secret struggles that bind them together. And while the debate was the main event in this story, I found myself more fascinated by the family dynamics at play and the connections to the other side characters. Overall, I learned a lot about this particular natural disaster, the ways we can all get involved and just how complicated families can be.

A quick and easy read that I couldn't put down. I found the characters really relatable and I loved the messgaes within the book.

I'd love personally a year without a summer, so I could totally understand Jamie. But this book is about understanding each other and dealing with consequences. And environmentally conscious topics are always an extra bonus point.