The First Magnificent Summer

March 1, 2023
Twelve-year-old Victoria Reeves is ready to have The First Magnificent Summer with Dad. Two years after her father was caught hiding a second family, leading to her parents' divorce, aspiring writer Victoria is set on convincing him to come home. With her dad coming to Texas to pick up Victoria, older brother Jack, and younger sister Maggie for a road trip to Ohio and a monthlong visit, she believes this is her perfect opportunity. Victoria's No-Fail Plan to Win Dad Back involves three steps: reading lots of highbrow books, impressing him with her dedication to writing in her journal, and smiling (because Dad doesn't like it when children don't look happy). However, everything quickly falls apart when he shows up with The Replacements, his new family, and makes it clear that he is not impressed by the new Victoria. His constant body-shaming of her, his clear preference for her brother because he's a boy, and the trauma of trying to handle her first period without the help of a sympathetic adult are intensely painful. When Dad goes even further in betraying her trust, Victoria must decide who she really is--with or without him. Victoria's journal entries provide deep insights into her complex thoughts and experiences. Themes of womanhood, family, and self-worth are thoughtfully woven throughout. Characters are presumed White. Leaves readers with a sense of self-worth and the important message that they're worthy of unconditional love. (author's note) (Fiction. 9-13)

COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

April 3, 2023
Twelve-year-old Victoria Reeves, a budding writer navigating anxiety, initiates a “No-Fail Plan to Win Dad Back” in this 1990s-set novel from Toalson (The Woods). Two years after her father was revealed to have a second family, Victoria and her two siblings live in Texas with their mother. This summer is the first time since the split that the siblings will see their dad, who will road-trip with the kids back to Ohio for a monthlong visit. Envisioning their “First Magnificent Summer” together, Victoria plans to impress with her wit and maturity, smarts and smile. But when their father arrives with his new family—The Replacements—Victoria remembers that he’s domineering and impossible to please. Over the course of 30 days, she endures comments about her body and is forced to handle her first period on her own. Victoria, who takes Virginia Woolf’s daily writings as a model, records in raw prose each painful humiliation and her palpable heartbreak. Realistic descriptions of emotional abuse and its impact come with later insight into her father’s internality, giving way to affirming messages about staying true to one’s core and realizing where love lies. Most characters cue as white; Victoria’s father has brown skin. Ages 10–up. Agent: Rena Rossner, Deborah Harris Agency.

May 1, 2023
Grades 5-8 Toalson's poignant epistolary novel follows 12-year-old aspiring writer Victoria, who after two years apart is anticipating an opportunity to reconnect with her estranged father. But when a chance to bond devolves into a string of abusive, heartrending events, Victoria realizes that she has to decide whether she will let her father dictate her life. Victoria overcomes countless challenges in this book, from emotional and verbal abuse to getting her first period in an unsafe space to having her diary entries violated--but she perseveres, thanks to the support of her younger siblings, whom she aims to protect, and her mom, who means well and does her best from afar. The story may prove challenging for some readers, but it also shows that, like Victoria, they can overcome these challenges and those who mean to hurt them for their age or gender. With her feelings shared in a variety of formats, from journal entries to poems to stream-of- consciousness brainstorming, Victoria will have readers rooting for her to not only survive but thrive.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.