Corners – Corrina Austin

“Corners are something you fix up … and sometimes, you can’t fix people.”

Ten year old Davy doesn’t have any friends and has just been banned from the local swimming pool for the rest of the summer. It’s 1969, the summer he meets thirteen year old Ellis, who teaches him about corners. The two weeks he spends with Ellis change Davy’s life in ways he doesn’t anticipate.

I enjoyed getting to know the characters in this book. Ellis had a sadness that radiated from her, even as she made small corners of her surroundings more beautiful. Hannah, Ellis’ grandmother, was an absolute sweetheart. Davy’s mother, a single parent, is doing her best trying to provide for her small family. Mr Mosely, Davy’s mother’s landlord, had his own struggles.

This story is told in two timelines. Davy is recalling this time in his childhood to his son, who is now the age Davy was in 1969. While I found the progression of the story of Davy’s childhood interesting, it didn’t read to me like he was telling the story to his son. The language didn’t feel conversational.

Adult me figured out what was behind Ellis’ sadness early in the book and knew how the story would end from the get go. Child me probably would have been surprised by both of these revelations.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Dancing Lemur Press and Independent Book Publishers Association for the opportunity to read this book.

Once Upon a Blurb

Everyone needs their own special corner…

It’s 1969 and ten-year-old Davy is in a predicament. With two weeks remaining of the summer holidays, he’s expelled from the public pool for sneaking into the deep end and almost drowning. How will he break the news to his hard-working single mother? She’s at the diner all day, Davy has no friends, and he’s too young to stay by himself.

The answer lies in his rescuer, mysterious thirteen-year-old Ellis Wynn. Visiting her Grammy for the summer, Ellis offers to babysit Davy. She teaches him about “corners” – forgotten or neglected areas fixed up special. Together, the kids tackle several “corners” and Davy learns what it means to bring joy to others.

Davy begins to wonder, though. Why does Ellis want to be his friend? Why doesn’t she ever smile? And is Davy just one of Ellis’ “corners?”