Somebody Else's Summer

Book excerpt: A wise, tender, and funny summer adventure story from one of Canada's most beloved writers for children. On a flight from Vancouver to Toronto, two girls meet, forming an unlikely friendship. Tall, athletic Samantha is going to spend the summer with a family friend while her father is in South America. Alexis, a shy girl who likes books, is being sent to a horse farm to learn how to ride while her mother and stepfather are travelling in Australia. As they talk, Sam and Alex realize they'd each rather be doing what the other is: Sam's elderly hostess runs a bookshop, and the family Alex is staying with is young and boisterous. By the time their flight lands in Toronto, the girls have hatched their plot. They're going to trade places for the summer. After all, the people they're going to visit have never met them, and their own parents are far away and hard to contact. But will they manage to pull it off? For how long? And with what consequences?