SUMMER FOR SEVEN by Janet Lambert

 

Seven teenagers is a lot of teenagers to have on your farm. Oh the DRAMA!! But Dria's Gran is determined to fill up the house with a bunch of her friends to make her summer special. Here are the dramatis personae -

• Rob - Dria's boy-next-door, hard-working and stubborn
• Joey - Rob's little brother, only 13 or so but destined for butler-hood
• Holly - Dria's best friend, something of a spoiled snob
• Millie - A bobby-soxer, a little loud, a little sloppy, lives on the wrong side of the tracks and just lost her mom.
• Willie - Millie's twin brother. Smart but wants to get ahead by any means necessary - feels looked down upon by the "haves".
• Chad - A local boy Dria met on the farm the previous summer.

Well, Janet has sure mixed them up into a stew this time around. Rob, Chad and Willie are working as farmhands, Holly, Millie and Joey are working a farm stand and Dria is prepping STAR DREAM for some horse shows. 

The drama is mostly Holly being a snot to Millie and/or Willie and Dria cleaning up after her. I am sure it will come as no surprise at all that Millie learns to have better grooming habits and Holly learns to not be such a bitch. Will learns he's as good as anyone else and he loves farming. Joey learns not to hit Dria with his car again. (A weird and seemingly unnecessary plot twist at the end.) Rob and Chad learn they both love Dria and Dria learns she loves showing horses. 

Gran ends the book praying to live another year to see her "summer children" again. I would like that too...