The Invincible Summer of Juniper Jones by Daven McQueen
Thank you again to Smith Publicity and Wattpad for the gifted copy of The Invincible Summer of Juniper Jones! I absolutely devoured this read. I’ve been scouring for books by authors of color in order to read stories about people of color that are authentic. The story of Ethan Harper and Juniper Jones went beyond my expectations. I had anticipated this read for quite some time and it did not disappoint. This is a story of racism, segregation, coming of age, and friendship—written beautifully.
Synopsis: At the beginning of summer 1955, Ethan Harper, a young biracial boy from Washington State is sent to a small-town in Alabama. He quickly finds out that he’s not welcome by most of the town’s population. Except for Juniper Jones. Juniper, a young red-haired white girl from the small town, meets Ethan and an unlikely friendship quickly takes off. They set off to make their summer “invincible" attempting to face every challenge along the way.
I’ve been reading more Young Adult fiction with the goal of finding literature that represents the students I teach and their voices. So many times we notice how underrepresented students of color are. McQueen is an author who, by her stellar authors note, understands this issue. Not only is McQueen’s writing beautifully written, but her story of Ethan and Juniper represents the voices of so many students who’ve been skipped over in literature.
I adored the story and the friendship between the two main characters warmed my heart. Together they take on very real challenges of racism and being the underdog. The way McQueen kept the reader wanting to know more about the lives of both characters and slowly revealing more and more about each clearly showed her talent as a writer. I felt for these characters immensely throughout the story. It was so realistic. I fell apart more times than one. Tears streaming down my face while attempting not to blubber. It’s such a POWERFUL read.
And I could never get tired of seeing this cover. This book has left me with a serious book hangover that I'm having a hard time shaking. I can't stop thinking of how amazingly the story developed and how important the story itself is. This book swelled my heart to 10 sizes larger and then shattered it to a million pieces. Each character was brilliantly written and their role in the story was so vital to understanding the plot. I can't help but think of how much thought McQueen must have put into each character--their mannerisms, their tone, each action they took throughout the story. But then again, it seems this story cam effortlessly to this amazing, young author.
I'm so glad that I keep seeing reviews and people's mention of reading Daven's book on NetGalley, but I cannot stress enough how important it is to own a hard copy of this book. I promise you are going to see this book get more and more recognition--especially if you are an educator who is passionate about gathering literature that represents students of color, you should have more than one copy of this book in your library. If I could single-handedly distribute a copy to everyone then I would.
I have not a single negative thing to say about this read. This book is a must-have and beyond brilliant. Although the book isn’t released until June 16th, I urge you to secure a way of getting a copy! I promise you’ll love it as much as I did.
An “A+ read” from me