All-Season Edie, Annabel Lyon’s first pre-teen novel, chronicles one year in the life of eleven-year-old Edie Jasmine Snow, book-ended from one summer vacation to the next. The main themes are sibling rivalry and a grandfather’s illness.

I loved experiencing the world through Edie; a mix of being a bit too-wise for her years, a “typical” eleven-year-old, and sometimes acting younger than her age, makes her character credible while following the writing-fiction rule: make your main character “larger than life”.

Written in the first person, the book drew me in from the first paragraph:

A warm car makes a good place to sleep, even when you have to share the back seat with sleeping bags and the big orange cooler, and the kettle is on your lap, and they still make you wear your seat belt. I listen to the raindrops hit the station wagon, landing heavily, like magnets dragged from the gray sky to the metal roof. I watch water slurp down the windows and listen to the skreeking of the windshield wipers. I’m lulled by the rhythm, and I wonder why Mom and Dad find it irritating.

They’re on their way to a cottage on one of the Gulf Islands. They’d planned to go visit the Grand Canyon, but Grandpa recently suffered a small stroke and “perfect” 13-year-old sister Dexter is staying with best friend “Mean Megan” because their annual two-week ballet-dance class camp overlaps this vacation time that Dad can’t change. But their trip is cut short, just when Edie has developed a daily routine of fishing with “fat boy” Robert – because Grandpa is feeling just a little, little tiny bit worse.

Lyon doesn’t leave out the rest of the family as they deal with Grandpa’s slow but steady decline, particularly Dad and Grandma, but it’s Edie who really takes his illness to heart. She doesn’t understand, or mind, that her Grandpa has always called her Albert for some reason, because it’s obvious he knows who she really is. But what if he forgets? When Grandpa gives Edie a nickel – “What do I do with it?” – Grandma blows on it to make it lucky. Grandma has also been experimenting with remedies from an herb book. But Edie thinks her Grandma is a witch, and if she’s a witch, then Edie must be part-witch, which should be enough to cast a spell that will cure Grandpa, anyway. So, at school, when Edie needs to come up with a topic for a library project, she informs the librarian that hers will be on Witchcraft.

Meanwhile, special occasions and seasons pass and during the year all sorts of things happen. Throughout the stories within this novel, Annabel Lyon continues to entertain her readers not only by the events; by the way the characters behave and develop; but also by the language she uses: this is kid-lit at its best.

The relationship between Edie and Dexter is pitch-perfect and develops in a realistic, touching way. As the eldest of four, with a sister one-and-a-half years younger than me, as well as two brothers, I know first-hand about bickering and sniping and teasing yes, but also that current of love and loyalty and sense of duty to protect that can exist between siblings. It was also interesting to learn that the story takes place in Coquitlam, BC, which just happens to be where we lived until I was fifteen.

To an outside observer, I must have sounded as though I couldn’t stop laughing, but I probably only laughed every half-dozen pages or so. When I was quiet, said observer might have caught a glimpse of my sleeve swiping my eyes, or trying very, very hard to swallow.

To say that I enjoyed this book is a bit of an understatement. At the same time, I’m not entirely sure who to recommend it to, specifically. Evidently, it’s recommended for ages 10+, but I think I’d leave that open: after all, if I enjoyed it, then what’s to stop anyone from reading it? The more young adult books I read, the more impressed I am becoming with how refreshing they are – that’s it: this is not only good literature, but it’s refreshing. And there is going to be a sequel! I’ll bet that is the perfect project for Annabel after publishing The Golden Mean, which was nominated for all three of Canada’s top literary awards, and winning one: The Writers’ Trust.

I’ll be reading The Golden Mean next, but I also plan to read the sequel to All-Season Edie.