"POSSUM SUMMER" BY JEN K. BLOM (REVIEW)

This is a beautiful book about trust, learning to heal and knowing when to let go. This book made me cry, it was so beautifully written and you can't help but fall in love with P and her Possum friend. My 10 year old daughter read the book and she absolutely loved it. She has placed it on the shelf alongside some of her other favorites which include E.B. White's "Charlotte's Web" and "The Trumpet of the Swan". In my opinion this book belongs with the classics!

A wonderful read, please don't pass this one up, it's for the young and old!

-Kitty Bullard / Great Minds Think Aloud Book Club ( )

Set during the first Gulf War, Possum Summer is the story of a young girl asked by her father to watch over their farm while he's fighting overseas. The weight of this responsibility weighs heavily on her, especially after finding out her dad's been hurt in battle. Methodically she checks their cattle, cares for the chickens, examines the fences, and tends to the working dog, Blackie, whom she's fallen in love with despite her father's warning that a farm has no pets.

It's Blackie who sets the story in motion, though, attacking a possum and leaving an orphaned baby that Princess feels obligated to care for. Torn between obeying her father and abandoning the joey, or secretly raising the baby until he is old enough to be set free, P (as she'd rather be known)struggles with the promise she made to her dad.

It's inevitable that P will choose to raise the possum, but what isn't foreseeable is the array of help she gets from the most unexpected places and the ingenuity she uses to keep her secret quiet. And when her secret causes the worst to happen, P must be stronger than even her father thinks she can be.

Possum Summer manages to convey the beauty of the Oklahoma countryside and lazy summer days of youth with a tension-packed plot of secrets and dangers. P is an exceptional character, one who seems so real it seems impossible that she is merely fiction. A reader will find themselves drawn into her world immediately, cheering at her successes, nail-biting at her risk-taking, and crying with her tragedies. Animal-lovers will adore the four-footed characters: the belligerent mule Jezebel, the impish and untrainable dog Blackie, and the adorably possum Ike; and readers of all ages will laugh at the hijinks and mishaps of best friend Mart and adore P's spirited and blue-haired grandma.

Without reserve, I highly recommend this book for kids of all ages. Like Where the Red Fern Grows, Hatchet, and Island of the Blue Dolphins, this book is sure to become a modern classic that children will someday be passing on to their own children. ( )