Summer in the City

by Marie-Louise Gay Narrated by Mark Turetsky

Overview

Husband-and-wife team Marie-Louise Gay and David Homel create a sequel to the enormously popular Travels with My Family and On the Road Again! - but with a twist. This time Charlie and his family stay home, and find adventure in their own Montreal neighborhood.

Charlie can't wait for school to be over. But he's wondering what particular vacation ordeal his parents have lined up for the family this summer. Canoeing with alligators in Okefenokee? Getting caught in the middle of a revolutionary shootout in Mexico? Or perhaps another trip abroad?

Turns out, this summer the family is staying put, in their hometown. Montreal, Canada. A “staycation,” his parents call it. Charlie is doubtful at first but, ever resourceful, decides that there may be adventures and profit to be had in his own neighborhood.

And there are. A campout in the backyard brings him in contact with more than one kind of wildlife, a sudden summer storm floods the expressway, various pet-sitting gigs turn almost-disastrous, and a baseball game goes awry when various intruders storm the infield - from would-be medieval knights and an over-eager ice-cream vendor to a fly-ball-catching Doberman. Then of course there's looking after his little brother, Max, who is always a catastrophe-in-the-making.

Key Text Features

illustrations

key text features

Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.9

Compare and contrast the themes, settings, and plots of stories written by the same author about the same or similar characters (e.g., in books from a series).

Editorial Reviews

Vancouver Writers Fest

This is a funny chapter book that celebrates the inquisitive spirit of its little hero and reveals how adventure is around every corner, if we only open our heart.

From the Publisher

"Was this supposed to be a change? No way. We lived here every day of the year. I knew every detail by heart . . . A vacation means going, not staying."
— from the book


"Summer in the City works as an easy transition for kids making the step up from picture books."—Quill and Quire

"…this volume is made even livelier and more enjoyable by the numerous pen-and-ink/watercolour illustrations that have made Marie-Louise Gay such a recognized name in Canadian children's literature."—Montreal Gazette

"An upbeat summer idyll likely to draw chuckles whether read alone or aloud."—Kirkus

Kirkus Reviews

After previous family vacations highlighted by encounters with alligators, revolutionaries and natural disasters (see Travels With My Family, 2006, for details) a "stay-cation" at home in Montreal sounds a trifle boring to Charlie. Not so, as it turns out--though most of the misadventures are a bit less hair-raising than before. True, a major storm does strand Charlie and his father in a stretch of sunken highway, and later on, he and his troublesome little brother Max take the wrong bus on a trip to the country. Still, most of the experiences during his post–sixth-grade summer run along the lines of agreeing to babysit a neighbor's goldfish (with the inevitable result), discovering the perils of walking several dogs at once and sharing a backyard campsite with a skunk. It's all agreeably capped by a surprise multigenerational birthday party in the nearby alley. Charlie relates his experiences in a bemused, almost self-deprecatory tone, and Gay's frequent fine-lined, loosely drawn illustrations mark all the high and low spots. An upbeat summer idyll likely to draw chuckles whether read alone or aloud. (Fiction. 10-12)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940175128124
Publisher:	House of Anansi Press Inc
Publication date:	05/01/2021
Series:	Travels with My Family , #3
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	8 - 11 Years

Read an Excerpt

Was this supposed to be a change? No way. We lived here every day of the year. I knew every detail by heart. I knew the neighbor across the street would come out the next minute to water his lawn. And he did.

This wasn’t going to be a vacation at all. A vacation is when you go somewhere special and see new things and do stuff you’ve never done before. A vacation means going, not staying . . .

“A stay-cation,” I said to Max. “I wonder where Dad got that one.”

“I’d rather go on a go-cation.”

Then he laughed his head off.

* * *

“See that orange truck?” Max whispered. “The guy inside it is an ax murderer.” He ducked his head. “Here he comes. Stay down!”

An ax murderer? What was Max talking about?

The next minute, an ancient truck moved past our house, so slowly I could have beaten it in a foot race. The truck didn’t have any doors, and standing at the steering wheel was a man even more ancient than the truck. The lines on his face were so deep you could have drowned in them. He was steering with one hand and ringing a bell with the other.

The truck was covered with drawings of knives, scissors and axes.

“Look – knives!” Max whispered. “I told you so.”

The truck stopped right in front of our house. I could have explained to Max that it was Tony the Knife Sharpener and not Tony the Bloodthirsty Criminal, but why not have a little fun? After all, there wasn’t anything else to do.

“You’re right,” I said to Max. “We’d better go investigate.”

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