A high-interest middle-grade bildungsroman, Raccoon Summer tells the story of nearly thirteen-year-old Seamus Robertson’s dilemma. At long last, he has talked his protective mother into letting him go away to Camp Ventura, where he will learn how to canoe, go whitewater rafting, and camp in the wilderness. First, though, he must spend two weeks with his grandparents at their rental cottage on Georgian Bay, coping with patchy cell service and his annoying little sister, Micky. He meets Jack, a local teen whose father died in Afghanistan, and starts learning to fish and handle a canoe. Shay’s mother leaves to teach in Europe, and Shay starts counting the days until he goes to camp. When he first gets to Georgian Bay, there are no kids aroun...