Summerland - Hardcover

Chabon, Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786808772 ISBN 13: 9780786808779

Publisher: Hyperion Books, 2002

Synopsis

For over a century, the people of Clam Island, Washington, have enjoyed barbecues and baseball games at Summerland, on the Western tip of the island, where it never rains. The small beings – known as ferishers – who ensure this perfect weather, however, are threatened by an ancient enemy, and need a hero – a baseball star, in fact – to vanquish their foe. Summerland is the story of Ethan Feld, the worst ball player in the history of the game, recruited by a hundred-year-old scout called Ringfinger Brown, himself a Negro League Legend. Accompanied by his determined friend, Jennifer T. Rideout, and guided by a friendly werefox, Ethan struggles to defeat giants, bat-winged goblins, and one of the toughest ballclubs in the realms of magic, to save all the Summerlands, and ultimately the world.

About this title

About the Author

Michael Chabon is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. His other books include Wonder Boys and The Mysteries of Pittsburgh. He lives in Berkeley, California, with his novelist wife Ayelet Waldman, and their three children.

Reviews

Grade 5 Up-Ethan Feld, a less-than-mediocre Little League player, is recruited by Ringfinger Brown, an old-timer from the Negro Leagues, to play in the ball game of his life-and save the world. Ethan lives on Clam Island, WA, where a place called Summerland exists. It is a link to alternate worlds where fantastic creatures reside, ruled by the trickster Coyote, who has decided that he wants to put an end to the world. Ethan, an unlikely hero, begins his journey accompanied by his friends Jennifer T. Rideout and Thor Wignutt. Along the way, they face many obstacles (with outcomes often determined by baseball games) and are joined by all sorts of beings: a Sasquatch, a talking rat, a tiny giant, a major league ball player, and characters that readers may remember from legends and fairy tales. Readers will identify with Ethan and his motley crew with their insecurities, longings, family problems, and their sometimes clumsy ingenuity. Packed with magic, adventure, myth, and America's favorite pastime, this book will enchant its audience.
Kimberly L. Paone, Elizabeth Public Library, NJ
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In his debut novel for young readers, Pulitzer Prize winner Chabon (The Adventures of Kavalier & Clay) hits a high-flying home run, creating a vivid fantasy where baseball is king. Following the death of his mother, 11-year-old Ethan Feld and his father, a designer of lighter-than-air-dirigibles move to Clam Island, Wash. The island is known for its almost constant rain, save for an area on its westernmost tip called Summerland by the locals which "knew a June, July and August that were perfectly dry and sunshiny." In Summerland, Ethan struggles to play baseball for the Ruth's Fluff and Fold Roosters, with dismal results. But here, too, a mystical baseball scout recruits Ethan and escorts him through a gateway to a series of interconnected worlds that are home to magical creatures called ferishers and an evil, shape-changing overlord called Coyote. Ethan and two of his fellow teammates soon accept a mission to save these other worlds (plus the one they live in) from ultimate destruction at Coyote's hand. When his father's well-being is also threatened, Ethan's quest becomes all the more urgent. To succeed, Ethan and his friends must find a way to beat giants, ferishers and others in a series of games where striking out truly has apocalyptic implications. Chabon unspools an elaborate yarn in a style that frequently crackles with color and surprise. He occasionally addresses readers directly, imbuing his tale with the aura of something that has been passed down through the ages. Impressively, the author takes a contemporary smalltown setting and weaves in baseball history, folklore and environmental themes, to both challenge and entertain readers. Images of the icy Winterlands and beasts like the werefox and Taffy the motherly Sasquatch recall C.S. Lewis's Narnia and some of Philip Pullman's creations in His Dark Materials. Devotees of the genre and of America's pastime will find much to cheer here. All ages.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Chabon contends that he decided to try his hand at a children's fantasy because he wanted to write something that would interest his three kids, but it's hard not to wonder if he wasn't thinking, too, about the popularity of a certain boy named Potter. Certainly, this sprawling, infinitely complex fantasy, ostensibly written for "all ages," has a few things in common with the Harry Potter books: meticulously created alternative worlds; detail-laden descriptions of imaginary flora and fauna; and a cast of characters, fantastical and otherwise, who possess a bedrock humanity that draws us to them. Unlike Hogwarts Academy, Chabon's fantasy world draws heavily on a distinctly American archetypal framework, supported by two of the most myth-drenched forces in American life, Indians and baseball. The story centers on young Ethan Feld, a reluctant little leaguer whose father, a crackpot inventor and rabid baseball fan, has been snatched by legendary troublemaker Coyote, who hopes to use one of Dad's inventions in his plot to kill the universe. Ethan and his teammate, Jennifer T. Rideout, set out to find Dad, scampering between our world, called the Midling, and several parallel worlds, including Summerland, which is populated by baseball-loving "ferishers" who just happen to have handpicked Ethan as the hero they need to save the universe from Coyote. In the best road-trip tradition, Ethan gathers enough traveling companions, including a morose Sasquatch (think Cowardly Lion), to put together a ball club; good thing, too, because the fate of the universe just might hinge on a nine-inning duel between Ethan's gang and Coyote's all-stars. Committed fantasy buffs are a breed apart, but even they will have to bring their A-games if they expect to digest this ingredient-rich plot. (Certainly, only the most precocious of kids will be able to get around on Chabon's mythic fastball.) Still, there is a good story here, semi-buried beneath the world building; maybe a trimmed-down, three-hour movie will salvage it for the more mundane among us. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Hyperion Books
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0786808772
• ISBN 13: 9780786808779
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 500