The First Summer of Callie McGee by A.L. Tait

Title: The First Summer of Callie McGee

Author: A.L. Tait

Genre: Contemporary

Publisher: Scholastic Australia

Published: 1^st August 2023

Format: Paperback

Pages: 208

Price: $15.99

Synopsis: ‘The water in a rip current is always calmer than the waves on either side. Once in it, you’re best just to go with the flow.’ It’s the last summer before Callie starts high school and she’s been dragged along to yet another ‘family friends’ holiday. Determined to change her nerdy reputation, Callie sets out to make waves—but nothing is quite as she expects. Her usual ally, Sasha, has outgrown Callie; her nemesis, Mitch, has brought his cousin Owen along; and the boring south coast town of Sawyer’s Point has been rocked by a series of burglaries. Callie, Owen, and Mitch decide to investigate the robberies, bringing them face to face with a local gang … and a possible ghost. But when Sasha goes missing, Callie must draw on all her smarts to find her friend and discovers that being Callie McGee has its benefits. A middle-grade mystery about growing up, figuring things out, and solving the puzzle of who you are.

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The family friend holiday – the one where everyone goes to the same place for a week because you’ve known each other for so long, your parents are friends and that means everyone thinks the kids are all friends too. For Callie, this isn’t really the case. She’s just finished primary school and wants to become CJ at high school instead of Calliope-Jean.  But Sasha tells her she’s not cool enough to be CJ, so she settle for Callie. And this time, Mitch, the boy who is always mean to her. Soon, the kids become embroiled in a mystery – a series of thefts in Sawyer’s Point, and Callie, Mitch and Owen investigate whilst Sasha starts to hang out with the local kids – and they keep hearing stories about a local ghost. But when Sasha goes missing, can Callie channel CJ and save her? A.L. Tait’s new story is a contemporary one that focuses on growing up and solving the puzzle of who you are.

Callie, Calliope-Jean, CJ -we’ve all been where Callie is, trying to work out who we are as we grow up, as we head into the teenage years, as we go through high school, and as we leave and head out into the world. Even as an adult, we might find our identities changing, and at times, wondering who we really are, especially if we a different person depending on who we are around. Callie is a bookish girl, who has always been known as a nerd, and she wants to have a fresh start at high school. I liked Callie – she reminds me of the kind of kid I was – we both love to read, and both prefer quieter activities, and didn’t always fit in with everyone in the family friend group, or at least, were the awkward age between the older kids and younger kids in the family friend group. Callie’s family friend holiday reminded me of the few times we had family friend holidays in Seal Rocks and Forster, where most of the group camped but we often stayed in a caravan or a friend in Forster. We went at Easter – where it was in between warm and cold, but also, very rainy. Like Sawyer’s Point, this was a sleepy little holiday place that seemed to boom during holidays, and where the unpatrolled beach was perhaps part of the thrill for everyone who went. I certainly don’t remember lifeguards there when we went. It was days spent on the beach – when it wasn’t raining or hanging out at the tents, trying to find something to do with an uneven number of kids – taking turns in board games if we had any became a thing, and I can imagine this happened with Callie as well in the moments that weren’t on the page.

We didn’t have specific traditions and days like Callie and her group, but the feeling of those days was familiar, and I could smell the salty sea, the beach, and the fish and chips as I was reading. These days were fun, but we never had a mystery to solve like Callie, Mitch, and Owen, and back then, the campsite and caravans were very simple. Things might be a bit more upscale and snazzier these days. Callie’s holiday was filled with a lot more adventure than mine used to be. Sawyer’s Point reminded me of Seal Rocks, Forster, and a little bit of where I live as well. I loved that Allison seems to have created a modern, Australian Famous Five-esque novel, that has a wide range of characters who have various interests. I loved that Owen and Callie got along so well – I think they were my favourite characters.

When Callie felt like she was being left behind by Sasha, and stuck with Mitch and Owen, I felt for her. She wanted to fit in, but Sasha was leaving her behind, or using her to get what she wanted from Ned – whom I didn’t really trust from the first time I met him. Everything in this novel was wonderful, and I loved what Sasha and Callie called the adults – The Groans. It made the novel exciting and fun for kids, and they will be able to connect with the feelings Callie and the other kids have about their parents and everything they do.

I have been looking forward to this book ever since I found out it was coming out. I love Allison’s fantasy work and was keen to see what she did with a contemporary setting, and she has performed brilliantly in this novel. I loved it, it felt comfortable, like I was having a chat with a friend and revisiting something we had both experienced.  It is a novel that I think many readers will enjoy and connect with, and one that I hope to read again. It is brilliantly written and relatable in many ways.