Back in Chicago, Natalie had everything she wanted: best friends, a competitive cross-country team, parents who love her. But when her mom gets a new job and moves the family to South Dakota, Natalie must adapt to a new way of life, develop a relationship with her semi-estranged grandmother, and grow to love the outdoors instead of the city. More than anything else, her burgeoning friendship with her neighbor Adam and his enthusiasm for fly-fishing help her process these dramatic changes.
As an adult reader (and outdoors enthusiast), this reviewer finds it easy to understand the appeal of fly-fishing. It’s less clear that younger readers will latch on quite as strongly as 16-year-old Natalie, who admittedly begins exploring the hobby as a way to spend time with her cute neighbor. Underlying the specificity of it, however, Connie Richardson’s RAPID CITY SUMMER is keen on broader messages: the outdoors are for everyone, not just crotchety men; there is real joy to be found in appreciating the beauty of the natural world; and (perhaps as the most significant nod to those younger readers) there are even ways to incorporate phones and social media into those experiences that preserve and enrich them. RAPID CITY SUMMER does a great job of both tying together its themes and inviting its audience in when it combines those impulses. Natalie, for instance, ends up following other female sport fishers on social media—inspired to participate in that world despite experiencing misogyny along the way.
The text is also commendable for its plain, clear-eyed portrayal of the disability spectrum. As a cross-country runner, Natalie is acutely aware of her own body. This is briefly foreshadowed by her first run in South Dakota; due to the elevation change and thinner air, she struggles to run at her usual pace. The social pressures of health are constantly in play, whether it’s a surprisingly difficult hike with neighbor Adam or a stroke survivor refusing aid to avoid being “seen” as disabled. Again, these themes may be easier to appreciate as an adult reader, but Natalie’s reflections on the body (especially that we are all, of course, only temporarily-abled) are part of a necessary cultural conversation from which most texts still demur.
Sometimes, the narrative pace does feel too brisk. Natalie’s mom and grandma come to an open shouting match in nearly the first scene they share; Natalie’s deteriorating friendship with an old best friend back in Chicago is shown in abrupt fits and starts. Other material could likely be trimmed: Adam’s largely-absent mother shows up for a few scenes, but these encounters don’t really add anything that isn’t better conveyed through the tension of her absence. To be fair, though, these aren’t the central relationships—more like thematic buttresses. The core story of Natalie finding positives in changing circumstances is strong and well-executed.
RAPID CITY SUMMER may not necessarily convince a crop of 7th graders to try fly-fishing, but it’s a fun, relatable, and thoughtful exploration of universal human experiences: our relationships with others, ourselves, and the natural world.
It’s hard to predict whether the focus on fly-fishing will interest its envisioned 7th-grade audience, but Connie Richardson’s RAPID CITY SUMMER still sensitively conveys lessons about accepting and appreciating inevitable change.
~Dan Accardi for IndieReader