Sarah is grieving the loss of her mother. she spends the summer at her family's campground and takes an interest in the loons on the lake.

Grieving the loss of her mother, young teenager Sarah is trying to get her family life back on track. An unexpected light at the end of the tunnel appears in the form of her involvement in a local initiative that works to rehabilitate birds, and the friends she makes there.

But soon, Sarah finds that even this space the she has created for herself is under threat. Can she find the way to protects the birds and her own hard-won peace?

An insightful story about grief, change and growing into oneself, this gets 3.5 stars.

I really wanted to love this. The main character, Sarah, is dealing with the death of her mother, the potential sale of the campground her family owns and runs and where they live, and is worried about the health of the loons on her lake. There are some lovely parts of this book: Sarah's love of the loons and activism around them; a new friendship with a boy staying at the campground, Theo; the relationship between Sarah and her uncle, and then later her father. But I just felt like there was way too much going on. It seems like every chapter, Sarah has a new challenge or a new goal - sometimes due to her making and sometimes due to circumstances. This book would have been better if the author had just focused on one or two of those plot points. Things felt scattered and as a reader I struggled to like Sarah - I sometimes just wanted to shake her.

Sarah Richardson is spending her summer working on her father's campsite and protecting endangered loons. Her best friend, Gemmi, leaves on a cross-country adventure with her parents to Oregon and back. Before Gemmi leaves, she and Sarah make a Summer Dream Do List, and each intends to make their dreams become a reality. Sarah intends to work on the campsite, rescue loons, and kiss a boy. While Gemmi's list is a bit more adventurous, she still promises to remain as supportive of her best friend as she possibly can-- through text messages. Sarah is exceptionally responsible for a 13-year-old girl-- she volunteers for a raptor rescue center, helps out at home, works to clean up the campsite, and even shares shifts at the store. With her father away Mondays through Fridays, Sarah has become especially attached to her uncle Juju who has become a dependable caretaker and parental figure in her life. Sarah is faced with confronting missing her mother who has left Srah and the rest of her family with little more than her collection of scarves and a journal she wrote while hiking across the Appalachian Trail (from Georgia to Maine!). However, Sarah's determination will prove to carry her far.

Loon Cover Summer begins a bit awkwardly, however after the initial couple chapters, the novel reads fairly smoothly and consistently. Readers will love following along with the main female protagonist, Sarah as she endeavors to rescue loons and befriend the many people who visit the campsite, including a young boy named Theo and his Aunt Maggie. Maggie is a naturalist and a loon expert who was sent by the University of Maine after Sarah emailed them so frequently the faculty became concerned over the conditions the loons were enduring. Perhaps only Reenie, the head of the raptor conservancy center, fully understands Sarah's passion for overseeing the wellbeing of these special and unique birds.

Donna Galanti has written a wonderful novel with delightful lines of dialogue and descriptions of a beautiful landscape of Maine. Her dedication to protecting endangered birds, wildlife, and endangered trees shines brightly through this narrative. The journal entries written by Sarah's mother serves as a catalyst into greater emotional depth and understanding of the woman who has left Sarah in such an unresolved emotional state. Each of the characters are well defined and add greater emotional complexity. The characters prove that they are family, friends, and share common goals of protecting their surrounding environment, preserving the loons and other birds, bringing in more people to their campsite, and solidifying friendships.

I loved this coming of age story. I was thoroughly into this story from page one.
Sarah's wish saddened my heart so much. Sometimes we say things we don't mean while we're grieving. I've done it and yes have regretted it too.
I know just how Sarah felt so I was able to connect with her. What an amazing young woman. I enjoyed in getting to know her.
This was a fantastic story. I didn't want it to end. Loved every minute of it.
I really loved the loons too. I could actually hear them on the lake I was so into this story.
Theo made me snicker sometimes. I liked him a lot too.
The writing in this was beautiful. The setting was described so well I thought I was there with Sarah and Theo.
5 stars for an wonderful adventure with the loons. I especially appreciated this story wasn't like a narrative like on TV. I guess u can say present tense as in the now.
I highly recommend!
My thanks for a copy of this book. I was NOT required to write a positive review.
All opinions expressed are mine.

This would be a good book to put into my environmental fiction section. The kids will find the characters relatable as many travel to main for summer vacation. Living in New England, they will also have familiarity and concern for loons. The story line will pull them in because it’s an adventure story, but it also deals with a lot of emotion from grief, to concern, to jealousy and confusion.

This book was an emotional journey, and while I might be slightly older than the target audience, I still found myself touched by many of its themes. The letters from Sarah’s mom were a beautiful and heartfelt touch—I really looked forward to each one. They added so much depth and emotion.

One of my favorite characters was Uncle Juju—he completely stole my heart. I also have to say the book does an excellent job of capturing how overwhelming emotions can feel at thirteen, especially when you're dealing with something as heavy as grief and change in your family dynamic.

That said, I did struggle a bit to connect with Sarah at times. I know she's young and going through a lot, but she sometimes came across as self-centered, which made her a bit hard for me to relate to. Her dad, on the other hand, was infuriating—he’s the adult and really should have handled things better! Watching their relationship evolve made for a very satisfying ending, though, and I genuinely teared up.

Overall, this was a touching and well-crafted story of grief, growth, and family. The ending especially brought everything together in a really moving way.

(3,75 stars)

This is a touching story about a young teen her friends and family during a particularly difficult time. She becomes very interested in learning about and saving the loons that visit her family's lakeside campground in Maine and in the process of that pursuit, she finds love, hope and healing amidst her grief with the help of a hiking journal of her mother's.
There is a quirky cast of characters like Buddha JuJu who imparts words of wisdom, a loon expert, a homeschooled 13 year old girl intent on getting a summer kiss and a boy who is also working through loss. The author's love of loons and nature shines through.
Thanks to Netgalley for the chance to read it in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Passion.

This book proves that it's not an emotion solely possessed by adults.
Sarah has it in spades for our aviary friends, specifically loons.
This author does a wonderful job in imparting facts about these birds alongside dealing with the raw feelings Sarah is experiencing over the loss of a parent. While her mother may have gone, her voice is still heard thru journal entries. In the end, the author is gifted with seeing Sarah's mom thru the thoughts transcribed into paper.

The other bonus that the reader is given is through this author's use of description whether in sounds (bird calls, banjo tunes), smells (trash, JuJu's cooking), and sight (black flies), to name a few.

This ARC was provided by the publisher, BooksGoSocial, via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

#LoonCoveSummer #NetGalley

Sarah is experiencing a lot of change, dealing with the loss of her mom, a disconnect from her dad and the disappearing loons on her lake. What she doesn't expect is that more changes could be on the horizon and she is not ready for them. Following a summer of triumphs and tribulations Sarah navigates love, loss, change and first crushes with an array of loveable characters.

This book was a breath of fresh air with a focus on nature loving teens in a world that is so heavily focused on technology. With personal nostalgic feelings of camping as a child and listening to the call of the loons, this was a perfect summer middle grade read!

Sarah lives with her father and uncle at a camp in Maine, however the family is struggling to keep the camp going and dad is now working during the week hours away. Additionally, Sarah has noticed that the loons that call the camp lake home are disappearing and tries to enlist the help of a loon expert but hears nothing back from the college she reaches out to. One day, while watching the lake, Sarah hears a loon in distress and, much to her surprise, she is aided in rescuing the injured loon by a loon expert sent from the college. Sarah soon befriends Maggie and her nephew, Theo, and sets out for a summer of loon adventure. However, when Dad starts to mention selling the campground that Sarah calls home, she is determined to save it. But she becomes conflicted when Maggie and her dad become friends and maybe something more...Sarah's not ready for her dad to date and definitely not ready to leave Loon Cove Campground. Will Sarah and her family be able to save the loons and campground? Will Maggie and Theo hang around for longer than the summer?
An emotional, heartwarming story sharing how grief manifests itself differently for each of us and how one step forward might also mean one step back in the process of healing.

What a wonderful story! Feisty, funny thirteen-year-old Sarah Richardson is our guide into a heartwarming summer of adventure, new love, and the challenge of protecting endangered loons. The Maine campsite where she lives with her father and uncle is rich with animals and nature and colorful characters, all who help Sarah navigate the pain of having recently lost her mother. Lyrical and precisely observed, Loon Cove Summer is truly a book of wonder. I found myself tearing up, and a few moments later, laughing. Donna Galanti writes with emotional honesty and imaginative vision—the kind that helps us see the world with new eyes and that reminds us of how miraculous it is to be thirteen and on the verge of… absolutely everything.

Loon Cove Summer was a heartfelt story full of bold loveable characters. It has been 6 months since Sarah's mother passed away and she is trying to learn how to cope with that loss while also growing up and becoming her own person. Spending most of her time with her uncle Juju, Sarah has a lot of strong beliefs about how the world should work and big goals and dreams she wants to accomplish. When her best friend, Gemmi, is leaving for a 6 week cross country road trip with her parents, they decide to write a dream list of things they both plan to accomplish in her absence. Kiss a boy, save a loon, get revenge on the rascals at the campground, normal things for a teenage girl to get up to. Along the way, Sarah discovers more about her past and what led to her being who she is. I would recommend Loon Cove Summer to anyone who wants a story about perseverance and birds! As an avid loon lover, I enjoyed all of the fun facts about the species and how they survive even the hardest times. The balance that Galanti provided between scientific facts and heartfelt story was a beautiful and enjoyable blend. I can't wait for this one to be published!

Not the kind of book I’d usually go for but wanted to try something different on a whim and I got to say I am glad I did. This one pulled me in from the beginning. I loved it.

What a wonderful book about family, courage, healing, and grief as Sarah is still dealing with the loss of her mom six months ago. At the campground that dad owns, Sarah wonder why the loons are disappearing and volunteers at the raptor rehab center. Sarah’s plan for the summer is to try and figure out a plan to save the campground and look for loons. Theo arrives with his aunt, Maggie, who turns out to be a loon expert sent by the university. Theo and Sarah hang out and look for loons, and she tells him she wants to hike Mt. Katahdin alone because her mom did. When Sarah finds out her dad is becoming friends with Maggie, Sarah gets mad. Sarah decides to leave one morning to hike the mountain trail, but something happens while she’s on the trail. What happens now?
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the eARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

This is a really sweet book with a strong protagonist that I think younger readers will really connect with. The themes of perseverance, trusting your gut, and taking care of each other will speak to so many kids who are going through challenging things. The characters are very sweet together and the sense of found family brings comfort to a family that has experienced a tremendous and difficult loss. I love the way this book touches on these difficult life experiences without overly dwelling on them.