Happy 4th of July!
Get out there!
Is your bike decorated for the parade?
If it is, grab a copy of Banana Seat Summer to read while you wait for the parade to start!
REVIEWS OF BSS:
Love this story of the two young guys growing up in the 70s/80s. It’s so fun reminiscing and growing with these rascals. It also has a poignant turn. And if you don’t know what tick-tacking is, find out now, so you’re ready when Halloween comes! Perfect summer read, goes perfectly with the beach!
Banana Seat Summer by David Yurkovich is a great trip back to my youth. It revels in small town incidents and showcases boys who are all about comic books, television, and candy in the seventies. I remember constantly checking the spinner racks for new issues of comics I just had to have. I recall splurging on candy at the local little store. Yurkovich infuses each chapter with a rush of nostalgia and a devout respect for the wonder and carefree openness that is part of being a child.
The novel is a collection of stories detailing the one summer in the quaint lives of the two leads, Mike and Jeremy. Their endeavors ring true to the reader because the situations they get in harken to so much of what it means to grow up in a small town.
Another aspect I greatly enjoyed is how the story featured such little technology and dwelled on what the characters would set out to do instead of how passive the youth of today are with being so plugged into their phones and their gaming systems. Building a clubhouse, confronting a bully and even trying to sell Grit newspapers are all tales explored in Banana Seat Summer.
It really brought m back to a simpler time, where a bag of plastic green army men could fill an afternoon with endless battles whether under a porch, in a rock garden, or near a slow-moving stream (just a few places where I staged battles myself).
And boy am I left with a hankering for a Charleston Chew after devouring this great read.