In science she is paired up with a boy who has 'chocolate brown eyes.' They choose a project that will kill the beetles from eating the pumpkins without hurting the bees. Her family raises watermelons and pumpkins on a farm. March Ann Tanner is twelve and her grandma is dying. The book is about coming to terms with your family name, having friends, a first love, and learning to accept death. I read it on our deck watching our own hummingbird drink from our feeder. Since it was my last day before school starts, I afforded myself this pleasure. Too bad most of us can't spare the time to have this luxary very often. I think that books have more power and flow better that way. There is something to be said for reading a a book in one sitting. This sweet and tangy debut introduces a memorable cast of characters who come to learn that grace can abide within and beyond the realities of pain and loss. In the middle of it all, a ruby-throated hummingbird decides to winter at the Tanners’ and becomes a source of delight and inspiration as March Anne prepares for Grenna’s passing and journeys toward self-acceptance. When Grenna suffers a heart attack, March Anne must face an uncertain future and confront her past. And so, in secret meetings deep in the woods, March Anne and her two best friends form the Pseudonymphs, whose names change with the seasons. And although Grenna has tried to teach March Anne about her ancestors, March Anne has always been uncomfortable with the family name she’s been given and doesn’t like. Thanks to Grenna, her grandmother and surrogate mother, March Anne has learned everything she needs to know about seeds, vine pruning, and harvesting melons and pumpkins. Twelve-year-old March Anne Tanner’s life is tied to the simple rhythms and cycles of the watermelon farm in Jubilee, Georgia, that she has grown up on.

Hummingbird by Kimberly Greene Angle