With two older sisters and three younger brothers, Sunday is often lost in the middle. She is so tired of being overlooked and forgotten, in fact, that she is determined to do something to make herself stand out. When her father moves the family to the small town of Alma to help rebuild the local library, Sunday decides this is her chance. Somehow, some way, she will make her mark while she is there.
Sunday comes up with several ideas—planning a grand opening for the library, getting the local hermit to come out—but the best idea is to discover who wrote the manuscript for a book she finds in the basement of the library. Maybe it’s a famous author! Everyone in the world would know Sunday as the girl who discovered the lost treasure. After making friends with a local boy named Jude, she enlists his help in her quest for fame.
In A Summer of Sundays, author Lindsay Eland’s portrayal of a girl in her tweens trying to find her place in the world is spot on. Her new best friend, Jude, is an only child, helping Sunday to see that the alternative to a big family is not necessarily better. Readers will figure out who the mystery author is before Sunday does, but watching her solve the puzzle is half the fun. In the end, however, she has to decide between fame and friendship, between standing out and fitting in. She’s grown up a lot while in Alma and knows who she is and what is important to her—all of which will help her make the right choice.
