The Summer of Bitter and Sweet

Starred review from April 11, 2022
Ferguson’s sweetly complex debut centers demisexual Métis Louisa “Lou” Norquay, 18, via an extended ice cream metaphor about life on the Canadian prairie. After Lou’s mother leaves to sell her beadwork at powwows, Lou’s white biological father is released from prison and returns, having served a sentence for the violent sexual assault of Lou’s mother when she was 16. Lou has also just broken up with her aggressive white boyfriend Wyatt, with whom she still has to work at her uncles’ ice cream shop. When her former best friend, King, also returns, her feelings for him initiate a realization that Lou “can’t have sex with him. With anyone.” And just when she thinks things can’t get more difficult, her uncles’
business ends up at risk, and her father’s insistence on making contact takes an even more insidious turn. In a layered first-person portrayal of a young Indigenous woman navigating the edge of adulthood, Ferguson (who is Métis and white) tackles necessary issues—of identity and sexuality alongside colonialism, generational trauma, racism, physical and sexual assault, and substance reliance—through well-wrought, complicated characterizations and prose that sings with poetry: “Summer arrives to the prairies slow—and stays for such a short time.” Ages 13–up. Agent: Patricia Nelson, Marsal Lyon Literary.

Starred review from September 1, 2022

Gr 10 Up-This searing story starts with a trigger warning from the author. Louise, who is M�tis, plans to spend the summer after graduation with her mom, uncles, and friends while working at the family's ice cream shack earning money for college. Her mom decides to travel the pow-wow circuit, selling her beaded jewelry. The older white man who raped her mother, resulting in Louise's birth, is released from prison, and is now stalking her. The return of King Nathan, a friend who might want to be more than a friend, but from whom Louise keeps a huge secret, changes her summer. Multiple secrets are revealed over a few months-that Louise first passed as white when she moved to town, that her family may lose their farm, and about an act of revenge all related to the toxic violence of racism and sexism in a small town on the Alberta Prairie. Louise slowly reveals her own secrets, and the ones her family have kept from her. Brutally honest about the sexual and physical violence Native women are subjected to, this story deals with a variety of painful topics and their impact on Louise's friends and family. Each chapter begins with a beaded image from her mother's art and a quote from her uncle's ice cream recipe book. VERDICT The honesty and complexity of this book make it a gripping read; a great first purchase for libraries serving teens.-Tamara Saarinen

Copyright 2022 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 1, 2022
Lou is preparing to spend the summer scooping ice cream at her uncles' seasonal shop, Michif Creamery, to save money for university in the fall. Unfortunately, things don't go as planned. She and her boyfriend break up (he's "all hormones-on-fire"; she realizes eventually that she's "ace or demi or something"), and they still have to work together. King, a former friend, returns from Toronto, and as their relationship deepens Lou is forced to face the fact that she had denied being Metis for most of the time they'd known each other. Additionally upsetting, she injures her shoulder in an altercation, a particular difficulty because she hopes to play water polo at school. The creamery is also under threats both mundane (a broken freezer) and more disturbing (intimidation from Lou's white biological father, a rapist recently released from prison). Lou must figure out how to save her university dreams and her uncles' business, as well as who she is as a Metis young woman. Although the book (a debut for Ferguson, who is also Michif/Metis and white) deals with major issues such as racism, rape, teen dating violence, and sexual harassment, it does not feel too heavy or overdramatized. Young adult readers can relate to the struggles Lou is facing as she navigates her transition from high school to college, and also use them as a conversation starter about race, identity, sexuality, dating, and friendship. Nicholl Denice Montgomery

(Copyright 2022 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

May 1, 2022
Lou is preparing to spend the summer scooping ice cream at her uncles' seasonal shop, Michif Creamery, to save money for university in the fall. Unfortunately, things don't go as planned. She and her boyfriend break up (he's "all hormones-on-fire"; she realizes eventually that she's "ace or demi or something"), and they still have to work together. King, a former friend, returns from Toronto, and as their relationship deepens Lou is forced to face the fact that she had denied being Metis for most of the time they'd known each other. Additionally upsetting, she injures her shoulder in an altercation, a particular difficulty because she hopes to play water polo at school. The creamery is also under threats both mundane (a broken freezer) and more disturbing (intimidation from Lou's white biological father, a rapist recently released from prison). Lou must figure out how to save her university dreams and her uncles' business, as well as who she is as a Metis young woman. Although the book (a debut for Ferguson, who is also Michif/Metis and white) deals with major issues such as racism, rape, teen dating violence, and sexual harassment, it does not feel too heavy or overdramatized. Young adult readers can relate to the struggles Lou is facing as she navigates her transition from high school to college, and also use them as a conversation starter about race, identity, sexuality, dating, and friendship. Nicholl Denice Montgomery

(Copyright 2022 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Starred review from March 15, 2022
An Indigenous teen's journey to self-discovery, community, and acceptance. Change is coming for M�tis 18-year-old Lou whether she likes it or not. Her mom is away selling her beadwork at powwows, and her uncles are arguing about their ice cream business. She'll be spending her summer running the Michif Creamery alongside her best friend, Florence, and her coercive newly ex-boyfriend (both White). Former friend King returns to town three years after their falling out, but she can't decide if she's ready to rebuild their relationship. When her White biological father is released following his prison sentence for the violent sexual assault of Lou's mother when she was 16, he begins harassing her and threatening the family business. Lou must decide if she will keep this to herself or seek support in her community. Bisexual Jamaican Canadian King gently helps Lou navigate the intersections of her trauma and her sex repulsion, introducing her to the concepts of asexuality and demisexuality, identities in which she finds clarity and hope. Their tender romance is just one of several kinds of connection and care that are given equal weight by Lou's compelling first-person narration. Debut author Ferguson, who is M�tis and White, touches on intergenerational family suffering at the hands of the state, mental health, substance abuse, racism, sexual harassment and assault, and missing and murdered Indigenous women--all with nuance and care. Heart-rending and healing; a winning blend that will leave readers satisfied. (content warning, author's note) (Fiction. 14-18)

COPYRIGHT(2022) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from May 1, 2022
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* Lou is working at her Canadian family's ice-cream joint to earn money for college. What should be a low-key summer hits the first of several bumps when her uncle also hires her white ex-boyfriend, Wyatt, and her long-absent, former best friend, King, who is Black. Worse yet, after her mother leaves to sell her beadwork on the powwow circuit, Lou learns that her biological father, the white man who raped her M�tis mother when she was a teen, is out of prison and wants to talk with Lou. She grapples with personal secrets, humiliation by white boys and men in town, her identity, and confusion over her sexuality (she comes to realize she's demisexual)--all while trying to piece together information about her family. Ferguson's frank and powerful debut opens readers' eyes to the multiplicity of daily traumas faced by people of color, especially Indigenous women and girls. Ferguson, herself Michif/M�tis and white, boldly writes on many challenging topics, including racism, physical violence, sexual identity, sexual assault, and teen alcohol use. Lou is complex, smart, and honest, and a narrator readers will trust, love, and learn from as she works to repair friendships and gain security for her treasured family. This also is the debut teen novel under the Heartdrum imprint, which centers intertribal voices telling contemporary stories.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

January 1, 2022
Lou is preparing to spend the summer scooping ice cream at her uncles' seasonal shop, Michif Creamery, to save money for university in the fall. Unfortunately, things don't go as planned. She and her boyfriend break up (he's "all hormones-on-fire"; she realizes eventually that she's "ace or demi or something"), and they still have to work together. King, a former friend, returns from Toronto, and as their relationship deepens Lou is forced to face the fact that she had denied being Metis for most of the time they'd known each other. Additionally upsetting, she injures her shoulder in an altercation, a particular difficulty because she hopes to play water polo at school. The creamery is also under threats both mundane (a broken freezer) and more disturbing (intimidation from Lou's white biological father, a rapist recently released from prison). Lou must figure out how to save her university dreams and her uncles' business, as well as who she is as a Metis young woman. Although the book (a debut for Ferguson, who is also Michif/Metis and white) deals with major issues such as racism, rape, teen dating violence, and sexual harassment, it does not feel too heavy or overdramatized. Young adult readers can relate to the struggles Lou is facing as she navigates her transition from high school to college, and also use them as a conversation starter about race, identity, sexuality, dating, and friendship.

(Copyright 2022 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)