Start summer with a splash!
Adventure awaits readers this summer with a fun new middle grade book The Firefly Summer by New York Times bestselling author Morgan Matson. She will be in conversation with Stuart Gibbs to help launch a summer of reading for kids! For the event, the two authors will share a short conversation followed by a Q&A from the audience and end with a book signing. This event is best for ages 8+.
An absolute summer delight! What a wonderful, heartfelt story that rings true as 12-year old Ryanna navigates an unscheduled summer filled with cousins, swims, treasure maps, s'mores and fireflies in an exquisitely told "found family" tale. Truly top-notch middle grade fiction. - Reviewed by Maureen
Masks are recommended for our events.
About The Firefly Summer:
The Penderwicks meets The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street in New York Times bestselling author Morgan Matson's middle grade debut about a young girl who gets to know her mom's side of the family and hunts for hidden treasure over the course of one chaotic summer.
For as long as Ryanna Stuart can remember, her summers have been spent with her father and his new wife. Just the three of them, structured, planned, and quiet. But this summer is different. This summer, she's received a letter from her grandparents--grandparents neither she nor her dad have spoken to since her mom's death--inviting her to stay with them at an old summer camp in the Poconos.
Ryanna accepts. She wants to learn about her mom. She wants to uncover the mystery of why her father hasn't spoken to her grandparents all these years. She's even looking forward to a quiet summer by the lake. But what she finds are relatives... so many relatives! Aunts and uncles and cousins upon cousins--a motley, rambunctious crew of kids and eccentric, unconventional adults. People who have memories of her mom from when she was Ryanna's age, clues to her past like a treasure map. Ryanna even finds an actual, real-life treasure map!
Over the course of one unforgettable summer--filled with s'mores and swimming, adventure and fun, and even a decades-old mystery to solve--Ryanna discovers a whole new side of herself and that, sometimes, the last place you expected to be is the place where you really belong.
About the author:
Morgan Matson is the New York Times bestselling author of six books for teens, including Since You've Been Gone and Save the Date. She lives in Los Angeles but spends part of every summer in the Pocono Mountains. Visit her at MorganMatson.com.
Photo credit: Gina Stock
About the moderator:
Stuart Gibbs is the New York Times bestselling author of the Charlie Thorne series, FunJungle series, Moon Base Alpha series, Once Upon a Tim series, and Spy School series. He has written screenplays, worked on a whole bunch of animated films, developed TV shows, been a newspaper columnist, and researched capybaras (the world's largest rodents). Stuart lives with his family in Los Angeles. You can learn more about what he's up to at StuartGibbs.com.
Photo credit: Dashiell Gibbs
