Sometime in Summer, by Katrina Leno, for Timeslip Tuesday

 A  younger YA/upper Mg (12-13 year olds) to read at the beach for this week's Timeslip Tuesday--Sometime in Summer, by Katrina Leno (June 2022, Little Brown).

14 year old Anna is sure she's unlucky.  She and her best friend haven't talked for months, her parents are getting a divorce, and her mother, Miriam, has decided the family bookstore has to be sold.  Even though Anna isn't herself a reader, she loves the bookstore dearly, she misses her friend but stubbornly refuses to reach out to her to try to set things right, and she can't understand how her parents, who still seem to love each other, won't stay married.

But two months away from California at a New England beach town in the little house her mom has just inherited turns out to be just what she needs.  A comet her mom remembers from 20 years ago has returned, lighting up the night sky with its swarm of meteors, and the moonstone ring her dad gave her lights up in magical (?) sympathy, and in her night time wanderings she finds a door to a small shore structure that should be locked, but isn't.  And when she steps through, she finds a boy and girl her own age, with whom she becomes friends.

Knowing in advance that this is a time travel book makes it obvious almost immediately (and there are lots of clues even if you don't know) that she's meeting her parents back in the summer when they first met.  And this experience, so strange and yet so friendly for her is just what she needs.  By the end of the book, she's been able to take a hard look at herself and the way she's reacting to life, and she makes remarkable progress in growing up.

Which isn't that exciting as a plot point, especially when Anna is somewhat annoying for most of this rather long (almost 400 page) book in which nothing much actually happens.  But still it was a pleasant seaside vacation for me as a reader, and I did enjoy the time travel lots, even though (or perhaps because) it came with almost no time travel tension.  

So yes, if you are looking for sun and sand and books being read and a little gentle time travel mystery with the heroine setting off on a hopeful path, you'll enjoy it, especially if you are a kid a little younger than Anna.