Summer 1960, small-town Ohio, and five thirteen-year-olds who have a whole summer ahead of them and an unexplained explosion to investigate. Lightning Bugs and Aliens is the kind of book that captures something essential about the texture of that kind of summer — the heat, the freedom, the mixture of joy and fear that comes with being young enough to still believe in extraordinary things.
Babka seasons his adventure with real depth — friendship across racial lines, family trauma, Cold War anxiety. The alien-hunting premise is the vehicle, but the destination is something more substantial than extraterrestrials.
The kind of book that nourishes. All ages welcome.
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