Summer Secrets

Children's Literature

Missy has a secret so awful she can only write about it in a notebook hidden in the back of her closet. Her mother is crazy. She's always done weird things like cutting off the buttons of daddy's shirts, or giving all her clothes to the ragman. She acted so strangely at one point she was sent away for a whole summer. She seemed almost normal when she came home. But now she's getting worse. Geneva, the family maid and housekeeper, tells Missy not to worry. "God'll figure it out. He writes the book. Let's jes' wait and read it." Hermes' engaging tale set in Mississippi near the end of World War II balances the weighty subjects of growing up, racism and mental illness with a rhythm and beauty that moves smoothly through the pages. "Geneva is as strong and big as a man. Her skin is so black it's almost blue. ...It's so shiny that at times, when I look at her real hard, I think I can see myself reflected in her skin, see me looking right back at myself." Hermes invites the reader to walk down the lane in back where Missy's best friend lives. "The people who live there are Negroes...and they don't like white people messing in their lane. You most always hear the mamas scolding the yard babies, and someone chasing the porch babies, and there's always someone minding someone else's business." This story carries an enduring appeal for today's readers. 2004, Marshall Cavendish, Ages 10 to 14.
—Francine Thomas

School Library Journal

Gr 5-8-During a long, lazy 1940s' Mississippi summer, 12-year-old Missy ponders in her journal events that are hard to understand. Her mother cuts off all her dear father's shirt buttons to feed them to the birds, gives away her clothes, and becomes reclusive and suspicious. Suddenly, Missy's two best friends have become "boy crazy," but they are still willing to accompany her on mischievous adventures. On one of them, Missy saves a child from drowning, and a wealthy doctor offers her a job teaching young children to swim in his new pool. She is shocked when only her white friend is allowed to accompany her. Her best friend, Almay, the daughter of the black housekeeper, is not welcome under any circumstances. Geneva has always been a mother figure to Missy and disapproves of her trying to question the social status quo. As Missy's mother grows more mentally ill, the girl's strict grandmother arrives to take control of the household and brings with her a whole new set of problems. Hermes's child's-eye view of a small southern town is on target. The enervating heat, the relief and cordiality offered by the local swimming hole, and the coming together of neighbors to view patriotic plays created by children all weave a nostalgic tableau. Most affecting is the sparring between worldly wise Geneva and naive, questioning Missy. An evocative and satisfying coming-of-age story.-Cindy Darling Codell, Clark Middle School, Winchester, KY Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Missy tries to cope with the chaos around her by writing in her secret journal about the events of one sweltering wartime Mississippi summer. Her mother is forgetting things and maintaining a dangerously thin hold on reality. Geneva, the family's maid, is the person Missy goes to for comfort and discipline and wisdom. But racial issues are threatening the relationships with both Geneva and her daughter Almay, who is Missy's best friend. So far Missy is able to be true to the people she loves, but given the time and place in which she lives, that may not always be possible. Along with everything else, Missy survives a serious illness and saves two lives. Hermes crams too many adventures into one summer to be entirely believable, and the war seems not to have affected anyone besides Geneva, who has lost two sons. But she has created a delightful, multifaceted main character, who is at once innocent, strong-willed, compassionate, insightful, and curious. A loving glimpse of a young girl's struggle to understand her world. (Fiction. 10-14)