Caterpillar Summer by Gillian McDunn

Caterpillar Summer by Gillian McDunn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

There's some things about this story that are just lovely, including diversity and the family struggles. There are a few beautiful sentences, and the overall themes are great. I wanted to love it far more than I did.

There's some definitely plot issues, and a few things that happen in the first 30% of the book that just make no sense. It may be my inner-educator popping out on this one, but I had to suspend disbelief to continue onward, and that was almost impossible for me to do. I think it was clear that the author hadn't done enough research, or didn't have enough experience to write on some of the issues in this story, particularly related to parenting an autistic child. For me, the mom being unaware of so much about her son lacked truth and honesty, and since it's contemporary fiction, I struggled with that. She may be an absent parent, but there's no way she could be so clueless. If nothing else, the school would keep her informed about her child, so this whole idea that she's unaware of his struggles (such as the running) really got under my skin.

The writing is pretty decent. There are a few lines that really stuck with me and made me think. However, there are also quite a few spots where the author just really beats the reader over the head with her message, because she doesn't think we are smart enough to get it on our own. But we are. Granted, I'm an adult, but after teaching middle school for 6 years, I can say that my students were also smart and picked up on things. They didn't need or want books that talked down to them. I wish the messages had just been made through the storytelling, instead of being forced on the reader, as that felt inorganic.

Overall, it's a decent story, though the plot continually lags. It has a lot of emotion, which I appreciate, and the character development is mostly decent. I appreciated the attempt at diversity, though I wish things with Chicken had added up better.

This book will likely appeal most to 5th & 6th grade girls. The voice can be a bit too childish at times, but overall it works. I love the cover. I just wish the overall concept made more sense.

Pages: 304