Summer

Twelve-year-old Summer is the book’s central character, its protagonist and narrator. She is of Japanese ancestry, curious about certain aspects of her heritage and identity (including arranged marriages) and somewhat mocking about others (such as her reference to being one of the few Asians ever with “frizzy hair”). As the story unfolds, however, it becomes clear that she is actively and honestly engaged in searching for the balance between being who she is as an individual and who she is as Japanese.

The former element seems to be more important to her, in that several of the narrative’s key events / circumstances (conquering fear, a first crush/kiss, a troublesome little brother) seem to be problems that just about every young person faces in one form or another, or at one time or another. Nevertheless, Summer’s Japanese-ness, for lack of a better term, is always present...