Tiny Infinities: 03/25/19

Tiny Infinities by J.H. Diehl has a lot of plot threads that all come together with the summer fireflies. Alice has moved into her parents' Renaissance faire tent in the backyard. It's her safe place away from the chaos of her parents' divorce.

Next door a new family has moved in. Their daughter doesn't talk. She used to but stopped when she was in preschool. Now she needs constant supervision and Alice connects with her over the summer as she works part-time as her minder.

At school Alice is trying to beat her record for freestyle to make it on the school record board. But a new kid, Harriet, who is obsessed with the science fair, has some strong opinions about Alice's swimming.

All of these apparently separate plots come together in Alice's backyard. It's there that the fireflies come out. It's there that Piper says her first words after years of silence. It's there that Harriet embraces her love of science.

This book reads like a one coeur summer slice of life anime. Things happen around these children but there is no big narrative arc. There is no happy ending. There are just scenes of kids doing their best through good and bad.

Four stars

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