Children's & YA
April 2024
One Alley Summer
by Anne Ylvisaker
The summer before middle school is a time of anxiety and change. A pitch-perfect novel in verse about one girl’s wish to simultaneously break free and to belong. In the summer before her first year of middle school, word-chanting, rope-skipping Phee skips her way to imagined fame, writes down her innermost secret thoughts from the safety of a treehouse, and imagines in horror that her new classmates will eat her alive. Suddenly, her well-worn alley world feels too small. So when Mercy Jones moves next door, along with Mercy’s skateboard and her don’t-mess-with-me attitude, Phee sees the chance for her universe to expand. Even if it means leaving some things behind . . . It is a time of dares, of a legendary dog named Bull, of stretching comfort zones, and of old friendships made over in new ways. And it all takes place over the course of one alley summer. Using pitch-perfect, richly rendered verse, Anne Ylvisaker captures the tone and insights of one girl’s wish to simultaneously break free and to belong.
