
I really enjoyed how this book is told in emails, along with a few voicemails and some old school letters. The girls are adamant about not becoming friends. They want the girls to go to a summer camp together and get to know each other. Middle Grade # 3 down in the books! This book was a delight! Avery Bloom and Bett Devlin don't know each other, but they are about too! They are being raised by single dads, and their dads happen to fall in love. Now that they can't imagine life without each other, will the two girls (who sometimes call themselves Night Owl and Dogfish) figure out a way to be a family?

Their dads hope that they will find common ground and become friends-and possibly, one day, even sisters.īut things soon go off the rails for the girls (and for their dads too), and they find themselves on a summer adventure that neither of them could have predicted. When their dads fall in love, Bett and Avery are sent, against their will, to the same sleepaway camp. What they have in common is that they are both twelve years old, and are both being raised by single, gay dads. Bett Devlin, who's fearless, outgoing, and loves all animals as well as the ocean, lives in California. Strong and vivid characterisation makes us feel we really know Bett, Avery, Grandma Betty and the parents, and relate to their decisions and feelings.From two extraordinary authors comes a moving, exuberant, laugh-out-loud novel about friendship and family, told entirely in emails and letters.Īvery Bloom, who's bookish, intense, and afraid of many things, particularly deep water, lives in New York City. Told entirely in emails and letters, this sensitive, often funny book examines what it means to be a family, and what happens when families change.

While this is greatly positive in many ways, it prompts a custody battle for Avery that, alongside the break-up of the dads’ relationship, tests relationships all round. Yet when Bett finds out that Avery’s mother is a famous playwright and lives locally to the camp, she invites her to family day without Avery’s knowledge, bringing Kristina back into Avery’s life. Worse, the dads are planning to send both girls to the same STEM and Arts summer camp while they go on a holiday of a lifetime to China.īoth girls take exception to their dads’ new relationship and decide they definitely won’t become friends, but, over several weeks emailing each other, even when at camp, they build a relationship.

Bett Devlin and Avery Bloom don’t know each other until Bett finds out that their dads are dating and makes contact with Avery via her too-publicly-available school email address to tell her.
