SUMMER BEGINS: The Callahan Cousins #1
by Elizabeth Doyle Carey
PUBLISHER
ISBN: 0316736902
Ages 8-12
272 pages

Hillary's parents have split up, so she's particularly happy to be spending time with her father's relatives. Since she and her three cousins --- Phoebe, Neeve, and Kate --- have all turned twelve, they get to stay an entire summer without their parents, at Grandmother Gee's big house on Gull Island.

Grandmother Gee's house is absolutely perfect for a summer with Hillary's beloved cousins --- huge and rambling, with hidden nooks and many cozy corners. It comes complete with a view of the nearby ocean and a swimming pool. The cousins, all so different and yet all so very Callahan, are ecstatic to be spending the summer together. As Gee says, "Cousins last forever."

Hillary longs to prove to her father, and to herself, that she's a true Callahan. She decides that the best way would be to revive a game her father and uncles once played against another island family, the Bickets, in which each family competed to plant their flag on a certain small gull-shaped island. Hillary plans to have the Callahan flag firmly planted on the proper island by the time her dad arrives for a family reunion. But she can't do it alone. Can she talk her less adventurous cousins into joining her?

When Hillary suggests the flag-planting scheme, only Neeve is eager to begin the adventure. Neeve manages to sway Kate and Phoebe by suggesting that the game will cheer Hillary up, and help her have a happy summer in spite of her parents' divorce.

Even with all the cousins (more or less) willing, there are other obstacles to Hillary's goal. The girls must find and equip a boat, and learn to sail it. They need to find the right gull-shaped island. Unfortunately, unfriendly Sloan Bicket learns of their scheme and seems snottily determined to uphold the Bicket honor. Will Hillary attain her goal before her father arrives? If she does, will it result in an all-out feud between the two families?

This first book in the Callahan Cousins series is irresistibly cozy. It manages to have an old-fashioned flavor while remaining totally "today." While the reader learns a bit about Ireland, ocean tides, islands, boats, and other subjects, the teaching is understated enough to be interesting without overpowering the story. Although the setting and some of the characters (such as Gee, the grandmother) may seem a bit too good to be true to some, others will adore their utter perfection.

THE CALLAHAN COUSINS: SUMMER BEGINS is refreshingly sweet-tempered; it decidedly is not gossipy, sarcastic or edgy. Readers, myself included, will eagerly anticipate the next book in the series.

   --- Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon (terryms2001@yahoo.com)

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