Chirp

Image: Kate Mesner Website

Messner, Kate.  Chirp.  2020. Bloomsbury Press.  New York, NY.

Mia and her family have moved back to Vermont to help her grandmother.  Mia's grandmother has had a stroke, and they want to help her grandmother with her business.  You see - grandma owns a Cricket Farm.  She sells her crickets and cricket products out of her own store front restaurant.

It's summertime, so Mia has to signs up for two summer camps to "keep her busy" over the summer.  She signs up for Launch Camp and Warrior Camp - never expecting to enjoy either one.  The Launch Camp turns out to be an unexpected challenge.  Students enrolled in the camp will develop a business, a business plan, or an invention to take to market.  At the end of the summer, they will present their plans to an investors group, and the winner will receive an award and $10,000 to help get the business up and running.

The Warrior Camp turns out to be an unexpectedly fun challenge.  Fashioned after a Ninja-Warrior style competition, the kids work to develop their skills and successfully finish The Course by the end of the summer.

Mia enjoys both camps more than she thought possible.  She works with a team of people to develop a business plan to help save her grandmother's business.  And the warrior camp helps her overcome and injury that happened while participating in competitive gymnastics the previous summer.

But unexpected challenges appear - marketing cricket products is more difficult than she had anticipated.  It appears that someone is attempting to sabotage Grandma's business, but nobody believes her.  This devastates Mia, who has a dark secret of her own that she is afraid to share for fear that nobody will believe her.

Will Mia be able to save her Grandmother's business?  Will she get the courage to share her secret with her family?

Bettina's Note:
I'm going to put a trigger warning right here - Mia struggles with several incidents of inappropriate touching by one of her gymnastics coach that happened before the family moved to Vermont.  Kate Messner gently handles this topic with love, giving children and parents alike the words and conversation starters needed to help spur conversations about their own lives. 

I adore spunky Mia with her enthusiasm, love of life, determination and courage.  The innovative way that she and her friends work together to try to save a business is encouraging - especially considering the very uncertain economic times in which we find ourselves.

Author's Web Site: https://www.katemessner.com/