Heart of a Samurai"I love this book so much I want to live in it."-Margi Preus, Newbery Honor winning author of

The summer before middle school is a time of anxiety and change. A pitch-perfect novel in verse about one girl's wish to simultaneously break free and to belong.

In the summer before her first year of middle school, word-chanting, rope-skipping Phee skips her way to imagined fame, writes down her innermost secret thoughts from the safety of a treehouse, and imagines in horror that her new classmates will eat her alive. Suddenly, her well-worn alley world feels too small. So when Mercy Jones moves next door, along with Mercy's skateboard and her don't-mess-with-me attitude, Phee sees the chance for her universe to expand. Even if it means leaving some things behind . . . It is a time of dares, of a legendary dog named Bull, of stretching comfort zones, and of old friendships made over in new ways. And it all takes place over the course of one alley summer.

One Alley Summeris and easily accessible novel in verse for middle grade readers. Phee, as a deeply relatable character and narrator, perfectly captures the universally fraught time of the summer between elementary and middle school, tapping into the anxiety we all know so well.

In the end, it's a positive, feel-good story about friendship and growing up that will evoke both joy and nostalgia in older readers, as they recall the summers of their own youth.