Caterpillar Summer, by Gillian McDunn. Bllomsbury Kids, Raincoast. 2019. $23.99 ages 10 and up

"The ocean heard my anger, and eventually washed it away. Then I finally understood what I'd been missing all those years." Cat looked at him curiously. "What was that?" Macon blew a big breath out. "Being a parent is a kind of promise. A promise to stand by someone even if you think they're making a mistake. To love who you get, not who you think you're going to get." Cat thought about his story. Something was missing."

Keeping to the summer theme, I want to share how much I enjoyed this novel about family and the changes that come with knowledge and understanding.

It's vacation time and Cat's family has a plan to be in Atlanta for three weeks while Mom is teaching a college class. Cat and her brother Chicken will have time to visit with Cat's best friend Rishi, whose family has recently moved from San Francisco to Atlanta. Cat will certainly continue to concern herself with her younger, special needs brother. She takes her responsibility for Chicken seriously, watching out for him at school and at home while their mother works. We learn early that their father has died after a battle with cancer.

"It's sad backward and forward," Cat said quietly.
Lily paused. Cat realized Lily would wait for hours if Cat
needed her to. The thought made her want to keep talking.
"I miss him backward when I think about piggyback
rides or cracking eggs. And I miss him forward when I think
of all the things he isn't here for, the things he won't ever
be here for."
Lily reached out to touch Cat's face. "That's the heart of
it, my sweet girl. So sad and so unfair."
Her touch was so gentle, it made Cat's eyes tear. She
leaned against Lily.
"I wish someone would have told me that I would miss him
forever, and in all directions."

Their mother is a children's book writer whose early readers center on the relationship between Caterpillar and Chicken, modeled after her two children. It is not until they land at the Atlanta that they discover Rishi and his family will not be there to meet them. They have been called to a family emergency, and are on a flight to India. That sudden change in plans has them heading to Gingerbread Island, and three weeks with grandparents they have never met. Cat knows nothing about them as her mother has never been forthcoming about her early life. Cat does not know why they are estranged.

Over the course of the three weeks the children stay with Lily and Macon, Cat and Chicken learn much about their grandparents and their life on the island, about their mother and her life there, and about the issues that caused their mother to leave and not want to come back. Cat learns to trust and to let some of the responsibility she feels for her little brother be handled by her doting and gentle grandmother. Cat has many adventures with her grandfather, with her new friend Harriet, and various encounters with some of the island's inhabitants. She learns a lot about fishing, a sport her mother loved. She makes up her mind that amends will be made and the whole family will find a way to be happy again. That task does not come without its problems, but readers will root for Cat every step of the way.

This story is a brilliant debut novel. It is told with emotion, humor, heartbreak and healing. Readers will not forget this family that finds itself questioning past relationships and decisions, then looking to a better future. I would love to meet up with them again.