Gr 3--7--Harvard and Roger's father sat in their city apartment for five months after "the mistake"--which caused the death of an infant in his care. Dad's now decided to take the boys to his hometown of Kettle Hole, ME, where he's just "the Corson boy there, not Dr. Corson." Mom can't leave her research, but she needs Dad to "use this summer to figure out a way to forgive [him]self." They're renting Dad's childhood friend Vern's house--without internet or TV--but Vern's daughter Nevaeh ("heaven spelled backwards") turns out to be a wonderfully welcoming friend. Alejandro Ruiz deftly distinguishes the sizable cast: he's especially empathic to clever, funny, kind Harvard, and just as affecting as adorable Roger, wise-beyond-her-years Nevaeh, slowly improving Dad, and Dominican American Mom. VERDICT With notable versatility, Ruiz magnifies the gentle goodness of Culley's affecting story, enabling younger readers to face difficult issues.

An ant farm adopted as a summer project becomes a means of healing. Harvard and little brother Roger Corson's pediatrician father hasn't been the same since the mistake that killed a baby in his care five months ago. Hoping to find his center again, Dad decides to take the boys to his childhood home, the rural, inland Maine town of Kettle Hole, for the summer. They're renting the home of one of Dad's oldest friends, Mr. Knowles, who's struggling to pay his deceased wife's medical bills and has moved with his daughter, Neveah, into their barn. Ten-year-old Harvard quickly befriends aspiring poet Nevaeh, also 10, who writes poems and has asthma. When the mail-order ants intended for the ant farm Dad builds arrive dead--a fact Harvard is desperate to conceal from Dad--Nevaeh helps Harvard populate it with the carpenter ants somehow only they see marching through the house. As the summer progresses, Harvard learns about ants and tries to help his father heal. Harvard's sensitive narration grounds readers as they navigate difficult emotional terrain, the authentically rendered setting providing a gently evocative backdrop. Culley neatly explores hard topics such as parental depression and financial precarity within a plot ever so slightly tinged with fantasy. Harvard and Roger are biracial; their mother is of Dominican heritage and their father's White, like the Knowleses and most other residents of Kettle Hole. Quietly and emotionally intelligent, this tale satisfies. (Fiction. 8-10) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Harvard is a funny guy; he loves wordplay and figuring things out. But after his father loses an infant patient and, unable to forgive himself, discontinues his medical practice, Harvard is stumped as to how to get his old dad back. Then Dad decides to take his two sons to the small hometown in Maine, in hopes that he can come to terms with "The Mistake" and his guilt. While there, Harvard is befriended by the girl next door, Nevaeh, whose mother has recently died, and they become supports for one another. The story's central adventure revolves around building an ant farm as a family, which Harvard hopes will distract his dad and help him move forward. When the mail-order ant colony arrives dead in the post, ingenuity comes into play with plenty of ups and downs along the way. Harvard is driven to distraction with anxiety about his dad, the ant colony, and Nevaeh's problems, but the story meaningfully examines how to identify the things in life one can't control, figure out where control can be regained, and find the ability to forgive. Culley (Down to Earth, 2021) gives readers characters that are natural, fallible individuals, which add credibility and tenderness to the story. Endearingly executed, this gentle tale will see readers applauding as they reach the end.

After 10-year-old Harvard Corson's doctor father makes a mistake that results in an infant's death, he is sad all the time, seldom leaving the apartment until he decides to visit his hometown. Harvard's Dominican scientist mother is too busy with research to go along, so Harvard, his five-year-old brother Roger, and their father rent a house deep in the woods of Kettle Hole, Maine, from a childhood friend of Harvard's father who's struggling to pay his late wife's medical bills. Hoping to lift his dad's spirits, Harvard begins a project studying ants; his father enthusiastically builds an ant farm, but when the ants he orders arrive dead, Harvard solicits the help of newfound friend and remarkable poet, 10-year-old Nevaeh, to find new ants. The initially dark slice-of-life story gets lighter as Harvard's father steadily improves and Harvard encounters wonderful people and landmarks in Kettle Hole. Cully (Down to Earth) deftly parallels Harvard's father's progress and the evolution of the ants they observe. Humor, often stemming from Roger's lively antics, is balanced with serious, thoughtful moments in this hopeful story that explores the reality of hardship and mistakes amid themes of forgiveness and resilience. Ages 8--12. Agent: Steven Chudney, Chudney Agency. (May)