The Blossoming Summer

Thirteen-year-old Rosemary yearns to share one home with her family, which proves a tall order in England at the start of WWII. As her parents struggle to find work, Rosemary and her brothers are sent to live separately with maternal relatives. But as living conditions worsen throughout England, the family reunite and relocate to Rosemary’s father’s native Wisconsin to move in with his mother. In the U.S., Rosemary bonds with her grandmother, who reveals that their family is Anishinaabe, and that Dad’s having “made it a secret” contributed to a strained mother-son relationship. And though Rosemary grows to love her new home and learns more about her Indigenous heritage, she fears that her father and grandmother’s antagonism will force the family to leave. The sparsely detailed wartime England setting swiftly gives way to the family’s experience settling down in the States, a move that Johnson (The Luminous Life of Lucy Landry) describes with welcoming warmth and vibrancy. Rosemary’s contending with worries regarding relocation, familial tensions, and war add tenderness to this gentle historical read. Ages 8–12. Agent: Jessica Schmeidler, Golden Wheat Literary. (July)