Family, summer camp, and treasure maps...this book holds all the ingredients to form the foundation for a wonderful read.

Ryanna is an only child with an amazing step-mother and a very loving father, who just happens to be a movie director and script writer. Although her mother died several years before, Ryanna's as happy as can be...until she receives a letter. Her grandparents, the ones from her mother's side which she forgot exist, have invited her to stay with them for the summer. At first, she refuses but when realizing that she'll have a chance to learn more about her mother, decides to give it a go. What she doesn't expect is to land in the middle of cousins, aunts, and uncles, she didn't even know she had. Worse yet, the ex-summer camp that belongs to her grandparents is in danger of being torn down...and when if that happens, all the clues surrounding her mother would disappear, too.

The setting is every reader's dream: an empty summer camp with lake, docks, forests, kayaks, and the freedom to run around almost however the kids please. Plus, Ryanna's relatives pack tons of personality and fun. Even the adults (for the most part, anyway) take life in stride and handle things with patience, humor, and finesse. It's the perfect setting to launch Ryanna's search for more about her mother, especially since this involves a treasure map with all sorts of clues. While some of these were obvious (not to Ryanna, though), the search adds to the excitement.

The mystery left behind by Ryanna's mother plays along between adventures with the cousins and worries about the neighbor, who is threatening to bulldoze the camp to the ground. Then, there's the side problem of the father's not-so-smooth relationship with the grandparents. In other words, there's always something going on. It creates a rich read but makes for a longer one, too. Still, it's fun to follow every moment of shenanigans, and there are quite a few.

This is a fun summer camp adventure that will have readers wishing they could join Ryanna and her cousins, and go on as many adventures as they do. I received a complimentary ARC and found this to be a fun group. ( )

The narrator/main character is appealing and likeable and believable.

The dialogue is really good and natural. I appreciate it. I like how it is mentioned that Holden was named for a favorite book character of his father’s but Catcher in the Rye was never specifically mentioned.

I love diversity in contemporary children’s literature and I liked it here but this book seemed to go out of its way to check as many boxes as it could. This is done only when the characters are first introduced. After that I didn’t see anything else about it. I don’t know whether or not I like that but I think that I do.

I always wanted a big family and even though it’s for just the summers this grouping is one I found appealing. Great inter-generational story.

I would have loved this book at ages 9-11. The main character loves mystery books and has a mystery (or a few mysteries) to solve and her trying to get info about the mother who died when she was very young were all my cup of tea and would have also been when I was the target age for this story. The mysteries I could mostly guess from miles away but they were still entertaining. The whole scenario is a bit formulaic I suppose but it worked. I had to suspend disbelief just a bit regarding the main mystery being solved. The situation with Ryanna’s father and grandparents being happily resolved seemed believable because they are all good people.

These kids are 9-13 and I would have known by 9 that their lame email did NOT sound as though it was from an adult. It was a bit annoying that they all thought it would pass muster. It could have been written in a way that was a bit more credible. I found it annoying.

This has a classic book feel to it even though our main character has a smart phone.

All the food made me hungry. (I veganized it in my mind which was slightly hard to do with only one food item. graham crackers for the s’mores – I’ve never found any or any recipe that are vegan and that use graham flour or enough of it)

I got a kick out of the last short chapter.

I enjoyed the whole reading experience. There is a lot going on in this book but it all seems to work. The characters and their relationships and the settings are all great.

This is a perfect summer book and would make a great family read aloud book.

I don’t usually feel this way about children’s novels but this is one I really wanted to read to/with some children 8-11 or that I wish I had at least read when I was in that age range. Reading this to a child or group of children would have made the book even more fun for me. I still enjoyed it just reading it on my own.

A couple of quotes that I liked:

“She still had two parents, after all – she didn’t know what it meant to have only one, and have everything they left become rare and special and precious.”

“If something stayed unknown, unopened, the possibilities could be endless, and you wouldn’t be disappointed – but it also wasn’t real.” ( )

I've read all of Morgan's books and was curious about her ability to switch from YA to middle grade. She does so seamlessly. Take a girl whose mom died when she was very young, a father who refuses to tell her anything about the maternal side of her family, a summer when she gets to choose whether to meet her late mother's parents at a camp on a lake back east, and you have the beginning of a great story. It's two part mystery. First is what Mom was like when she was Ryanna's age, second is why her father is estranged from her Mom's side of the family. When she arrives at her grandparents, after accidentally getting off on the wrong foot with a cousin she never knew about at a convenience store, she's floored to discover she has an abundance of maternal relatives, not to mention that the family compound is in danger of being turned into condos by a greedy man who lives across the lake. Add in Ryanna discovering a treasure map her mom created when she was twelve, a friendship with the son of the greedy man, a slow building of familial bonds, and she and her cousins solving a great treasure hunt, and you have a great read, one that satisfies no matter what your age. ( )

Ryanna's summer is all planned out when a letter arrives from her estranged maternal grandparents: they want her to spend the summer with them in Pennsylvania. Seeing an opportunity to get to know more about her mother, who died when Ryanna was three, she agrees to the change in plans. What she doesn't expect to find is that her grandparents' home is a former summer camp, and she has a whole crew of aunts, uncles, and cousins that she doesn't remember, all eager to get to know her. After a rocky start involving a spilled slushy, Ryanna settles in for a summer of fun. What she and her cousins don't know is that it may be the last such summer: the ownership of the camp property is disputed, the handwritten deed is lost, and if it can't be found before the fall, the camp will be torn down to make way for lakeside condos. Is there anything Ryanna and her cousins can do to save the camp?

This is a fun, summery read with a wholesome vibe. I think kids, especially those longing for a big group of friends or cousins to adventure with, will really enjoy this book. Adult readers may find themselves having to suspend disbelief on certain key points, and few of the adults have really fleshed-out characterization, but it does a great job of conveying a summertime mood. ( )

The Firefly Summer is a full length middle grade novel of nearly 400 pages. It's an absolutely delightful read and I'm not kidding when I tell you I thoroughly enjoyed it as a grown up! In fact I was amazed at how well this book is written to entertain both children and adults.

Ryanna Stuart's orderly life in Southern California as the only child of a widowed father is about to be turned topsy turvy when they receive a letter from her maternal grandparents (whom she has never met) inviting her to come to the family Summer Camp Van Camp in the Poconos.

She steps straight into the pages of one of the mystery books she so dearly loves, complete with a haunted cabin! And a real life mystery must be solved in order to preserve this beloved family camp and tradition before it is bulldozed and turned into ugly, modern condos by the "neighbor" across the lake. Along the way family bonds are built and Ryanna is surrounded by the places and things her mother grew up loving. By the time the summer is over and Ryanna reluctantly must return to her life in California, she has truly come to know the mother who was taken from her when she was just three years old.

I received The Firefly Summer through the Goodreads Giveaway program as an Advance Reader softcover copy and I'm so glad I had the opportunity of reading this enjoyable book (for all ages!), though targeted to Middle Grade children. ( )