Both Tobin and Lemonade begin to find friendship with the other kids in town, which helps Lemonade feel like she belongs (p 133). At one point, Lem has the opportunity to choose to go back to San Francisco to rejoin her former life and friends, and that comes to a head as she’s developing her friendship with Tobin (p 171). She must navigate a new relationship with a grandfather she didn’t know about. Lemonade has several relationships to explore. And people choose not to understand those that are different. “You see, they need to hide in this world Because they’re different. Later on, he says, “Just ’cause you don’t understand them doesn’t make them beasts or monsters!” (63). Tobin replies, “‘Cause people can hurt you.” Tobin has certainly experienced how people can hurt others with the other kids in town, as he is the butt of many practical jokes and doesn’t seem to fit in with the kids at school. On page 16, Lem asks Tobin why he hasn’t found a Bigfoot yet, and why they’re hiding from people. There are many parallels between the legendary, elusive Bigfoot and other characters in the story, especially in the ways they relate to people. Charlie is dealing with the grief of losing his daughter (Lem’s mom) twice, and with the grief of his wife’s death. Tobin is dealing with the grief and confusion of losing his father, who was drafted to Vietnam and didn’t come home. However, while Lemons is written from Lemonade’s point of view, Savage explores a broad range of grief through a variety of characters who have lost loved ones. But it makes us grow, and it makes us stronger” (p 129). Dickerson, Bigfoot Detectives, Inc.’s best customer, helps Lemonade process through her grief while giving her insight into the loss of the others in her life. There are two lovely scenes (127-130, 200-201) where Mrs. Savage uses several vivid metaphors to give voice to Lem’s feelings – a volcano (p 43, 53, 85, 191), drowning in quicksand (87, 177, 216, 268) and carrying something heavy (76, 129). Most central to the story is Lemonade’s loss of her mother. Sometimes, it helps to just be able to explain how you feel, and that’s usually a really hard thing to do, especially for a young person experiencing loss. When you’re experiencing great loss, it often comes with really big, unfamiliar feelings. Lemons would also be a great tool to help students identify feelings and thoughts around loss and grief. There are many different storylines and themes one could focus on, so I feel like it has a pretty broad appeal to all sorts of readers in that age-range. ![]() Who I Would Give It To: I’d recommend it for upper elementary through middle school. It all made sense, however, when I read the author’s bio on the back flap – Savage is child and family therapist with a desire to write “purposeful, issue-driven books” and she has certainly done that. I definitely wasn’t expecting that from such a bright, whimsical cover and title. As I was reading and processing the story, I was struck by the depth and introspective nature of Savage’s writing. ![]() This is a story of finding your place, learning about feelings, and navigating relationships. And, of course, they have a Bigfoot to find! The disappearance of Tobin’s father still haunts him, though he doesn’t like to talk about it. For Lem, there’s the grief of losing her mother and having to leave her life in the city to live with an estranged grandfather. Without internet and cell phones, things were simpler, freer, and for Lemonade Liberty Witt (Lem, for short) and Tobin Sky, this gives them plenty of room to figure things out. Lemons takes place in a small town in California in a time where kids spent the summer riding around on their bikes having adventures and phones were still attached to the wall with cords. The people, the relationships, the feelings are all so genuine and relatable, you could almost put them in any time period. There is a timeless quality to Savage’s writing – which sounds like a cliché, but it really wasn’t until about half way through that I realized that this wasn’t taking place in the present day. Why I Finished It: To find out if Bigfoot exists, of course! (Kidding…sort of…) From the beginning, we were all captivated by this story – myself, my 2nd grader, and my PreKinder kiddo. My son likes mythical creatures, and I was curious as to how lemons would play into a Bigfoot story. I have my go-to authors, but we’d pretty much exhausted those, so I was browsing some middle-grade novel blogs and Lemons jumped out, probably because of the upside-down Bigfoot on the front. Why I Picked It Up: This summer, we went through a LOT of audio books.
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