Summerland

Going into this book with the foreknowledge that it was aimed at adolescents, I was, of course, skeptical. I've been a Chabon fan since the release of Kavalier and Klay, and with his writing style of extravagance I wasn't sure how he would come off as a children's writer. Well, as the stars suggest, I was not disappointed. The masterful prose transformed me from the cynic I am today into the innocent I was of childhood, and made me realize, even if only for a short while, that those really are the best years of your life. Mixing fantasy, baseball, and growing up for the kids, but also underlining with a Chabonesque philosophy on the importance of the little things in life, this novel is one that I will read to my own children, and then hope they read it to their children. Just another step toward Chabon's inevitable title as one of the greatest writers of the past 20 years.

Summerland is a fantasy world constructed like a crazy quilt of all our favorite bits and pieces, half forgotten fancies about fairies (only they're ferishers and play baseball), magic more rightfully called grammer, friends who think of themselves as androids, because they don't fit in, only to find out they are really ferishers who don't fit in, and on, and on, joke following insight. It's all tacked and embroidered into a whole cloth of beautiful design. Summerland is the kind of fantasy which explains our world to us better than any ordinary sort of pusillanimous fiction could. As in Narnia, when they were all dead, but everything seemed "more real". Summerland is fantasy at its best, the sort of book you read through with fascination at first, then with speed as the hour goes late, the candle gutters in its bedside stick, your batteries in your flashlight give out, etc., and when you are safely through and can breathe again, you open it up immediately and begin to read again. Because you're not yet ready to leave Summerland. It's a better world.

One book I suggest you to read is Summerland. You might think it is a little long, but the book is so good you won't even care. You will like Summerland especially if you like fantasy and baseball. You should not try to read this book if you are not in middle school, because you might not understand the book and will not enjoy it. I am not done reading the book yet, but it is great.

I loved this book. It's about a young boy named Ethan Feld and his battle to save the world. It's got ferishers (fairies, but they don't like to be called that), werecreatures, a Sasquatch, giants, and more. But, most of all, it's got baseball. I can't begin to describe this book to you...it's an adventure story on a grand scale. It was written for children, but like Lewis's Narnia Chronicles, adults will find it wonder-full too.My favorite quote in the book (and I'll probably misquote it here, since I'm doing it from memory) is that "a baseball game is nothing but a great slow contraption for getting you to pay attention to the cadence of a summer day." How true. I can't wait to read this to my baseball-loving son.

I have been a fan of Michael Chabon for a few years now and was very happy to see he was writing a book for a juvenile audience.Summerland is the tale of a young boy in modern day Washington state who is quite possibly the worst baseball player around. Ethan lives on a small island that features an are of it that never gets rain. Therefore, baseball is very popular with Ethan and his friends.What nobody knows is that this area, known as Summerland, is also a portal/rift to other dimensions. When extra-dimensional beings start causing problems and kidnap Ethan?s inventor/engineer father to help them destroy the tree that links all the worlds, Ethan and his friends must band together to save the world/worlds.Chabon introduces the reader to some of the most inventive characters I?ve read ever. When these characters are combined with beautifully described foreign worlds and the great American sport of baseball. The result is pure magic.Highly Recommended for Kids and Adults10 stars!