As a lot of us had young children/teenagers at the time, someone suggested we read a youth book. Several were suggested and we chose this one, "Summerland" by Michael Chabon.
This novel describes a little island in Washington state that has been blessed with perfect weather during all their baseball games. There is a reason for this, and the reader soon finds out that not only human beings inhabit this little piece of our earth and that there is more to our globe than what we call our world.
This is fantasy mixed with a little sports and adventure, a perfect book for young teens and pre-teens who enjoy magic but also for anybody older who likes fairy tales and fantasy. I'm not a big fantasy fan myself but quite enjoyed this little novel. And I learned a little about baseball, something a European will probably never understand, at least not this one. ;-)
We discussed this in our international book club in April 2004.
See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2023.
From the back cover:
"Summerland is the story of a young hero on a quest through the strange world of the American Faery. This is a fantasy for readers of all ages, set against the background of the American myth. The Clam Island fairies are in grave peril. War is coming, another battle in an ancient conflict. When the band sends for a champion, they get an 11 year-old boy named Ethan Feld. He hates baseball and wants to quit his losing team, but Jennifer T. Rideout loves baseball and won't let him quit. The two find themselves on a journey that includes zeppelins, werefoxes, Indian mythology, sasquatches, wendigos, and the haunted 161 year old husk of George Armstrong Custer. Finally Ethan becomes who he is: a changeling, a hero, and even a man. - Publisher Statement"
If you enjoyed this, you might also like Michael Chabon's "The Yiddish Policeman's Union".
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