by Elizabeth Holmes

Tracktown Summer is a powerful book dealing with the loss of childhood security through parents’ failures. Twelve-year-old Jake doesn’t understand how his father could leave his family and move away to a new life. Jake longs to re-establish the security he felt when his parents were still happy together. Spending the summer with his father in a lakeshore cabin might give them that opportunity. Unfortunately, the cabin is on the polluted end of the lake, nearly on top of the train tracks. Jake’s father is emotionally unavailable and buried in his book research most of the day. Jake fends for himself much of the day, and finds other “Tracktown” kids in the same boat, though for different reasons. He strikes up a friendship with Adrian–slightly older, infinitely cooler, and volatile. The boys drift through the summer with little adult supervision. When a crisis at Adrian’s house puts both boys in danger, the adults must face up to their failings. The final scenes offer some healing, though the answers aren’t perfect or pat. Holmes uses the trains that roar through town as symbols of the forces in kids’ lives that are beyond their control–including their family situations. Recommended to elementary and young adult readers, especially kids dealing with divorce or parental mental issues.

reviewed by Victoria