Rare Birds

In this enjoyable story, Novak (Do Not Find Me) sketches a brief summer moment in the lives of a few folk of a nameless Minnesota town. As June 1960 begins, there is little promise in the summer for six-year-old Elise Larsen. She and nine-year-old Katie Fiore have little to do and she isn’t sure what to make of Claus Jacobsen, the man who visits Elise’s mother, Betty. Other residents of the town include Gertrude, who walks around the block incessantly, imagining that she hears “the grass hollering,” and Roger Vernon, who tends his store. When Sue Too moves to town, she befriends Elise and Katie and the trio form a secret club to solve the mystery of an abandoned house. The girls investigate and make discoveries, Claus has a heart attack, and Betty must adjust how she thinks about her life with him. Young toughs visit Vernon’s Grocery and Gertrude discovers love. Novak’s pleasant and transportive novel paints a still life of a simpler time. [em](June) [/em]