Such an excellent read and at such an appropriate time in our society. It’s hard not to immediately fall in love with the two main characters. This is one book that will stay with me for some time.

Wow, this book is powerfully beautiful. In 1955 Ethan Harper spends his summer with his aunt and uncle in Alabama after an incident at his school. The town is predominantly white and Ethan is biracial. He is confronted with discrimination, racism, and bigotry in the small southern town. The story also revolves around Ethan’s friendship with Juniper Jones, a quirky and self-possessed girl who is determined to have an “invincible” summer with her new friend.

This book is filled with events that will make you angry, sad, frustrated, and hopeful. It is an amazing story about the horrible power racism and the uplifting power of friendship. The writing style is accessible for a wide range of readers (it is a young adult title) while the topics are incredibly relevant for everyone, especially in this moment of history. I hope that this book reaches lots of hands, adults and young people alike.

Thank you to Daven McQueen, Wattpad Books, and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was ment to read and review this for a blog tour but never received it in time to review for the blog tour , hopefully soon I will be able to read and edit my review for this.

Wow. The only word I could come up with and said several times after finishing this book. This book was truly amazing. We start off with Ethan Harper, a young man with an African American mother and white father. Primarily being raised by his dad, young Ethan get's into trouble at school, and his dad sends him to his sister's house in Alabama, in the summer of 1955. While there, Ethan meets Juniper Jones, an eccentric young lady and a friendship ensues. Their path during the summer is full of fun and tears.

This book was beyond my expectations. You will deal with all kinds of emotions and it will truly tug at your heartstrings. This was a very enjoyable and emotional read. Well done.

I received a copy of this book via Netgalley and am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

I genuinely have nothing bad to say about this one. Everything, from the way each character is written to the detail in the scenery, is amazing. This may be a YA book, but it deals with complex racial issues that are unfortunately still around. I would highly recommend this book to everyone, as everyone can gain something from it.

I definitely recommend this book !
It's beautiful and very well written ! The writing is simple but not simplistic, wich is great because it makes it accessible to Middle Grade readers (wich is amazing beacause it bears a very important message !) but is also satisfying to older readers. Indeed, the descriptions are very lively and the characters extremely well done ! Juniper is by far my favourite characters in fiction ! She's so unique and the kind to embrace life.
The relationships are gold, above all Juniper and Ethan's ! It discusses very well about race and shows how important having someone that relates to you is but also how important it is to have someone who doesn't relate but tries their best to understand and help. It also highlights the importance of talking about race with children.
Let's also appreciate that this book is ownvoice.

So this books is simply perfect in my opinion, nothing's missing, it's doesn't drag at all and isn't maladroit ! It's a real pleasure to read ! It's a great, important read.

4.5 stars I'm pretty sure I'll never forget The Invincible Summer of Juniper Jones. I'm so impressed by this powerful little novel, and I think everyone should read it. It's hard to read at times, but an important stepping stone as we grow and learn about the world we live in and the kind of people we want to be. I found myself smiling with Ethan and Juniper and their summer adventures, but also growing anxious with each page I turned, knowing that things wouldn't always be easy for these two best friends. While it's a sweet story about friendship, at its core it's about racism, how harmful it is to ignore it, and how important it is to stand up against it.

Daven McQueen does a wonderful job placing the reader inside Ethan's mind. We feel what he feels. His confusion and anger at being left in a strange town by his father, his happiness at meeting Juniper, his fear when people are unkind. I think The Invincible Summer of Juniper Jones could be a good introduction for young readers to some of the history of racism, and the harm and pain it's caused and continues to cause. Seeing the world through someone else's eyes is the best way to change our viewpoints.

I only wish we would have gotten more of Juniper's backstory, but it didn't affect my love for these characters. I'm so happy to have discovered this unforgettable book, and I can't wait to read more from such a promising author.

Biracial Ethan Harper has been mostly raised by his white father in Seattle. His mother who is black lives in Alabama where she and his father met and married. It is 1955 and Ethan’s father is sending him to spend the summer in a small town in Alabama where he is to live with his white aunt and uncle.

Ethan is being sent to Alabama to learn a lesson. He was in a physical confrontation with a white classmate in Seattle. His father wants him to learn what is means to be Black. He feels that Ethan will get such an experience in this southern town where he will be the only Black person. Unfortunately, it is a town where Blacks are not openly welcomed, and so, living there for the summer will definitely prove to be difficult for him. That is until he meets Juniper Jones.

Juniper, a unique and kind individual as well as a free spirit, is everything that the town isn’t. She friends Ethan and is determined to spend the summer with him having all kinds of adventures. She resolves that it is to be the invincible summer of Juniper Jones. And she wants to share it with Ethan. As she and Ethan attack their huge list of summer goals, Juniper is determined not to let anyone else’s racism ruin their summer.

This book is about coming of age in Alabama at a time when racism and discrimination were rampant in America, and especially so in the southern states. The reader experiences segregation from Ethan’s viewpoint as he learns that he is not welcome in the same places as whites. By using this approach, the author immerses the reader into Ethan’s character and into his discomfort with the racial inequalities that he faces thus allowing the reader to experience the world through Ethan’s eyes.

The friendship between Ethan and Juniper is the highlight of the book. Juniper is so full of optimism and is willing to take on almost any challenge and she draws Ethan out of his loneliness and solitude just by being herself. As their friendship strengthens they bond together to enjoy their invincible summer while they attempt to ignore the small Alabama town’s racism.

The intended audience is the teen reader but the book and its message are appropriate for any age. This book is a powerful and emotional historical novel about segregation and racism. The story of the summer of friendship, race, and innocence is both heartwarming and tragic and it is one that you will recall long after you have finished its final pages.

This review is written following the reading of the ARC ebook courtesy of the publisher and NetGalley.

The Invincible Summer of Juniper Jones is a timely exploration of race and friendship, set in 1950s Alabama. It's beautifully written and unfair that a writer so young had so much talent. On the other hand, it's phenomenal that we'll have years to see McQueen develop her craft.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts are my own.

Reviewing this book will not do it justice. EVERYONE needs to read this book. It is a heartbreaking, heart wrenching story of friendship and coming of age in the early years of the civil rights movement. I will forever remember this book and the brutal look at race, identity, and white privilege.
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Ethan has been sent to Ellison, Alabama for “punishment” for a school scuffle but what his Dad didn’t anticipate is how much of a punishment being biracial in Ellison would be.
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As Ethan and Juniper become friends and plan and execute their invincible summer, the racism of 1955 soon becomes all too real.

I absolutely loved this book and will recommend it to everyone!! This topic is always relevant but even more so (if that’s possible?) today.
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I immensely enjoyed this book. I went back and forth trying to decide whether to give this 4 or 5 stars. I think the story was beautiful and sad. I was invested in Ethan and Juniper's friendship. I liked that this was set in the 50's and it was about a young Black boy coming to terms with who he is. But I wanted more of him. I wanted more from his trip to Montgomery. I felt as if Juniper pushed him to accept all of these truths and her story was rivaling Ethan's. This might have been able to be remedied if we heard more about Ethan's participation in the Civil Rights movement at the end during the flash forward we received. All in all, I found myself gripped by this story and I didn't want to put it down. I choose to give it 5 stars in the end because of the emotion it made me feel and how I want more people I know to read this so I can talk to them about it.

I loved this book and I look forward to reading more by this author (once she puts out her next book!)

This book left me heartbroken... I was 30% into this book and I was already crying, the unfairness, the hate, the cruelty we see there...
But not everything was bad, there was love and kindness and friendship and Juniper Jones!
That girl was fire, she was a rainbow of colours and nothing and no-one could break her spirit.
This book was not about Ethan, this book was about how Ethan's life changed after Starfish...
I was 20% into it when I decided to pre order my physical copy, this book deserves so much love, it was so amazing and at the same time it was terrific...
I don't have enough words to say how much I loved it with all my heart.
5⭐
Thank you Netgalley for sending me this book 💗

A beautiful and heartbreaking coming of age story.

This is the best book I have read this year. Set in 1950's Alabama, Ethan is a the son of a white father and black mother. After his parents seperate he lives with his father in Washington state. After he gets into a fight at school and is suspended, as punishment, his dad sends him to his home town of Ellison, Alabama to stay with his Aunt and Uncle for the summer.

Here he is far from welcome in the community, bored out of his mind, when he makes friends with Juniper Jones, the towns outcast oddball with a kind soul. She wants to make this summer invincible and Ethan is just the person to help her achieve this goal.

Grab tissues and set aside time to read this one cause you will not want to put it down. This book made me laugh, cry and feel very angry all at once. It's poignant, beautifully written and highly emotive.

Thank you NetGalley and Wattpad for a supplying a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. It's 1955 and Ethan Harper, a biracial boy, has been sent by his father from his home in the Pacific Northwest to rural Alabama to spend the summer with his white aunt and uncle. As the only Black person in town, it is clear from the get go that he is not welcome. He is wallowing in the misery of his long summer days until Juniper Jones comes into his uncle's malt shop one day and changes everything.

I finished this book over a week ago and I'm still thinking about it. It is joyful and painful and raw and tender - a little bit like how growing up feels. Daven McQueen has written a beautiful coming-of-age story that, even though it's set in 1955, feels as if it could just as well be happening today. I loved the friendship between Ethan and Juniper. I loved Juniper's free spirit but I loved even more that she was fallible. She tried to be a good friend to Ethan, was a good friend to him, but still couldn't truly understand the prejudice and racism that Ethan was experiencing. Throughout the entire book, you could feel the underlying tension of Ethan being the only Black person in a small, Southern town boiling under the surface until it bursts through in the final events of the novel. Over the course of one summer, Ethan's life is forever altered - for better and for worse.

I can't encourage people enough to read this book. Especially given the current events we are living through. Let Ethan and Juniper teach you a little bit about friendship and hope over the course of one invincible summer.

I loved everything about this book but as a black woman this was hard to read. It hurt knowing that some people still have these views and beliefs in 2020.
I loved Ethan and Junipers friendship though.

Thank you NetGalley for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I had a little trouble getting into this book at first, but once I got into it, I just wanted to keep on reading.
This book made me laugh, smile, cry, made my heart break, all at once and at the same time.
This book holds such important messages in it (surely with the BLM movement right now). This book should be read by everyone, because it is so important, yet it still makes you smile at most times.

Thank you NetGalley and MacMillan publishers for providing me with this copy.

4,5 stars 🌟

I liked this book a lot and felt like I learned something through reading this story. Even though it was set in the 1950s and I'm not a big fan of historical fiction, I still enjoyed this story and felt like I gained something through reading this. Enjoyed it a lot and will read more from this author.

Tears are streaming down my face. My heart is broken. The story of Juniper Starfish Jones was the sweetest, most brutal book I have read in a very long time. It breaks down racism and hurt in ways that most people will never experience or understand. It’s a very fitting book for today, and everyone should pick this book up. It’s an important read for all ages. The story leads the reader to ask themselves hard questions and think about difficult and uncomfortable situations. This is a book that will have a great impact on its readers, long after the last page has been turned.

What an incredible title to be reading, especially right now.

"She showed me that people can be good and there can be hope, even when it hurts"

Never has a title that seemed to go by so quickly so eloquently dealt with such complex issues on life, friendship and what it was like for biracial individuals in the 1950's. My heart went out to these characters, made me feel like I was right there with them, and so powerfully took all those feels and KEPT delivering them throughout every

Ethan Harper is comfortable in his skin, until he finds himself living with his aunt and uncle in a town so unlike his own, where his father has banished him for the summer. Frustrated, this young boy must face actions that confuse and scare him, and at times feeling like he's all alone.

Until Juniper Jones arrives in a flash of red hair and spunky attitude - a character sure to warm your heart and want nothing more than great adventures. Incredible characters, with constant surprises and endearing moments that will have you reaching for the tissues while simultaneously wanting more.

Complex issues, family drama, a bully, and lessons on incredible friendship make this title an absolute MUST read, right now. page of this book.

This book is a quick and engaging read that focuses on the friendship between a biracial boy and a white girl in 1950s rural Alabama. The author breathes life into the main character, Ethan, and his best friend, Juniper, who although accepted in town for her whiteness, is also seen as the "town loony." Their friendship is strong and together, they learn about life, most specifically, about racism and the boundaries that it creates between people. The story is heartbreaking yet gives a glimpse at how people can learn and unlearn if they want to. It is a story that can provide many access points for discussion, especially for young adults.

One thing that I would like to note is that although the novel takes place in the 1950s, the author sometimes injects language within conversations that is contemporary and was not used at the time. This is not a flaw, but is something that I noticed.