One Alley Summer - a novel about friendship and growing up

Transporting. —Kirkus Reviews

“A highly recommended realistic fiction title that deftly explores classic tween themes of summer, friendship, and coming of age.” —School Library Journal

“A sparkler-like whiz of words that captures the feel of summer and the real world of kids—their rituals and rules and private growth spurts. Anne Ylvisaker owns this territory.”

—Paul Fleischman, Newbery Medal recipient for Joyful Noise and National Book Award finalist for Breakout.

“I love this book so much I want to live in it, with these rope-jumping, skate-boarding, tree-climbing, bottle cap-collecting, poetry-writing, mouse-rescuing, dog-finding, double-daring, friend-making (and sometimes losing), life-loving, joy-filled kids. Ylvisaker has created a place so real and full of life, you’re going to want to live here, too.”

—Margi Preus, Newbery Honor winning author winner and winner of the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature for Heart of a Samurai

A pitch-perfect novel in verse

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.

One Alley Summer: A Novel about Friendship and Growing Up

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.

Categories: middle grade novel, poetry
Themes: coming of age, diary, secrets, middle school, verse, summer, skateboard, dog, boundaries, nostalgia, poetry, growing up, story in free-verse, friendship, peer pressure

Easily accessible verse with pitch-perfect tone for middle grade readers
Phee is a deeply relatable character and narrator
The summer between elementary and middle school is a universally fraught time, and this story perfectly captures the anxiety we all know so well
In the end, a positive, feel-good story about friendship and growing up
Older readers will recall with joy and angst the summers of their own youth

Publishing date: May 6th 2024
ISBN: 9781958325124 (Hardcover)
ISBN: 9781958325131 (Ebook)
Hard back with jacket: $17.99 US
Ebook: $9.99 US
Length: 256 pages
Size: 5.5×8.25 inches
Age: 9-12
Grade: Gr3-6

AUTHOR: Anne Ylvisaker

COMPS: The Summer of June by Jamie Sumner, Birdie by Eileen Spinelli, Shouting at the Rain by Lynda Mullaly Hunt

Available at your favorite bookstores or online retailers.

Top Notch Writing

It’s not that I never forget a name. It’s just that there are certain names that take up permanent residence in my brain and won’t be removed no matter how many years go by. I think Anne Ylvisaker is a pretty good example of that. Why did I know her name? I finally had to just give up and look her up and then I knew. Back in 2014, she published a novel with Candlewick called The Curse of the Buttons and it was great! Top notch writing! Now she has a very different middle grade out with a main character by the name of Phee. Phee’s the kind of kid harboring a truly wild imagination and a tendency to make up stories and make things as dramatic as possible. When a new kid moves in next door name Mercy, Phee is deeply interested. This is a verse novel, a coming of age, and I just happen to really like this cover. One to keep an eye on! —Betsy Bird, A Fuse 8 Production, School Library Journal

Listen to Anne Ylvisaker reading an excerpt from One Alley Summer

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Anne Ylvisaker

Anne Ylvisaker (pronounced ILL-vi-soccer) is the author of the picture book IAMASAURUS (Cameron Kids 2022) as well as many award winning books, including five middle grade novels with Candlewick Press, a board book, and nineteen books of non-fiction for young readers. In 2005 Anne was awarded the McKnight Artist Fellowship/Loft Award in Children’s Literature. She has a master’s degree in education.

Also an artist, Anne has participated in various group art shows, and in 2019 had a solo show of paintings and poems called Surprised by Delight.

Anne grew up near the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Until 2006, she spent her adult life just across the river in Saint Paul, teaching and writing. After four years in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Anne moved to Monterey, California where she lives with her husband Dan. Find her at anneylvisaker.com