Book Info:
The Umbrella Maker’s Son by Katrina Leno
Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy
Publishing Date: June 27, 2023
Synopsis:
From a critically acclaimed author comes a fantastical middle grade novel about a boy determined to prove there’s more than just the weather behind his rainy town. Oscar Buckle lives in a city where it’s always raining. And when it isn’t raining, it’s about to rain, so the townspeople have learned to embrace it. Oscar’s father is an umbrella maker—appropriate for a place where you can’t leave home without one!—but while Buckle Umbrellas are strong, reliable, and high quality, they’re expensive . Because of this, people are buying from the competitor instead, which is threatening Oscar’s family’s business. To make ends meet, Oscar is forced to quit school and work in his father’s shop as an apprentice. But when extraordinary events start to occur in their rainy town, Oscar becomes suspicious of their competitor. Desperate to save his town, Oscar must enlist the help of his best friend, Saige, to discover if there’s more than nature involved in their city’s weather.
Content Warning: Grief, loss of a parent
Book Links:
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62874022
About the Author:
Katrina Leno was born on the East Coast and currently lives in Los Angeles. She is the author of seven critically acclaimed novels for young adults: Sometime in Summer, Horrid, You Must Not Miss, Summer of Salt, Everything All at Once, The Lost & Found, and The Half Life of Molly Pierce. Her eighth novel (and first middle grade) The Umbrella Maker’s Son, arrives June 27, 2023. She thinks you are just lovely.
Author Links:
Website: https://www.katrinaleno.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/katrinaleno
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katrinalenobooks/
Tour Schedule:
Every now and then you get a Middle Grade where the writer's imagination is off the scale and this is true for The Umbrella Maker's Son. Here Katrina has built a world where there are so many different kinds of rain. food and games where the reader felt like that they were actually there. This book has been described as a Fantasy but there is so much more like adventure and mystery.
For me the stars of the show were Oscar and Saige what an amazing duo and I think children like Saige will completely fall in love with her. So thank you Katrina for adding such a strong character with disability.
But my favourite things were the footnotes really kept me as a reader enthralled and that rather wonderful glossary at the end was top notch.
For all the above reasons I am giving The Umbrella Maker's Son 4 stars