Summerlings

By Lisa Howorth

Washington DC, summer 1959. The city is experiencing a strange infestation of spiders. Spiders and their webs are everywhere, much to the delight of the neighborhood kids and the displeasure of the adults.
Three boys are getting the utmost enjoyment from the infestation, setting out to capture and catalog as many different kinds of spiders as they can find. John, Max and Ivan live in a very diverse neighborhood. On their street are Ukrainians (Ivan's family), Brazilians, Austrians (Max's family), Southerners from Louisiana, Netherlanders, Hungarians and native Washingtonians (John's family).
John is the main character and his family life is a bit of a puzzle for him. His parents are in the middle of a divorce, he hasn't been told why. He only sees his father rarely, mainly for a week at the seashore during summer. His mom is in the hospital, ostensibly for illness, but there is some doubt about the truth of that. Meanwhile, John lives with his grandparents, Brickie, his grandfather and Dimma, his grandmother.
John tries to understand the undercurrents in the lives of the adults but rarely comes to the correct conclusion. Meanwhile the boys have big plans: capturing spiders, sneaking into the Pond Lady's backyard to capture the albino frog Peachy and sneaking a peek at Pond Lady's iron lung, figuring out how to get back into the good graces of the DeHaans, who have the only swimming pool on the street and organizing a block party. But the biggest plan of all is breaking into the museum to steal a pirate vinegaroon. They plan to use this poisonous scorpion relative to get their revenge on a neighborhood bully they call the Scutcheon.

This may sound like a kids book but it isn't. Mixed in with the boys' adventures are the threats and phobias of the time, Commies, Russian spies, and the atomic bomb. One of the secondary characters dies and the cause of death is murky at best. The boys pretty much run wild, and the adults in the their lives rarely supervise their activities.
I really enjoyed this story. It isn't a long book, only 243 pages, but it totally captured my interest.

Review by Kirkus Reviews.