The Summer Gang

Cornelia Funke (author)

Chicken House Press, UK: October 2011; 166pp

ISBN: 978190442868

Genres: adventure, realistic fiction

Issues: family, friendship

Charlie, Hannah, Izzie and Xa (Alexandra): four friends-most-of-the-time girls who would like their summer to be a little more interesting. Forming a gang seems like a good start – but how do you find an adventure?

Keeping each other's secrets is easy enough as they don't really have any. But the boys' gang is out to annoy and before the CHIX know it, after school time has become one emergency after another. As they get to know each other a little better the girls begin to realise that a gang isn't just about adventures, sometimes it's about offering support, advice and a new perspective.

Cornelia Funke is best known for the Inkheart trilogy and Dragonrider. Generally she's an accomplished, sophisticated writer with a strong interest in character. The Summer Gang lacks the depth of her later work but be aware that English translations do not always follow the chronological release of books in their original language. Inkdeath, the final in that trilogy was released in Germany in 2007, The Summer Gang was released in Germany in 1993, so this is one of Funke's earlier works.

That said, what starts out as a school and girlfriend style novel quickly shows Funke's interest in character. Three of the girls are not the comfortable, confident 'cool kids' they'd like to be. Charlie's father left not long after she was born, her mother works long shifts as a taxi driver and her dominating, strict and unloving grandmother uses the girl as maid-of-all-work, so to speak. Hannah's confidence is entirely dependent on her friendship with bright, popular, pretty Izzie. And while Xa has a happy, loving family, she finds it difficult to stand up for herself with parents who are absorbed in their work and the new baby. Funke's subtext is that outward appearances can be deceiving and most people have problems in their lives of one kind or another. Only by sharing and caring can children (and adults) find an easier path through life.

Obviously the first in a series, it's not particularly clear yet where the CHIX adventures will lead but it seems likely that there will be strong characters, both boys and girls, and realistic problems resolved with understanding and kindness, without the overly neat (and often unbelievable) resolutions that are too common in children's fiction.