Elvis, Me, and the Lemonade Stand Summer

Elvis, Me and the Lemonade Stand Summer is an engaging late elementary/early middle school read from debut author Canadian Leslie Gentile who is an Indigenous writer/singer/songwriter of Salish and settler ancestry. This story is centred around eleven-year-old Truly Bateman, a young mixed-race girl living with her single mom in the late 1970's in a trailer park in an Indigenous reserve on Vancouver Island, BC. 

It is a heartwarming (and a bit heartbreaking) story with characters readers will enjoy. Through Truly's POV, Gentile introduces issues of microaggressions and discrimination against Indigenous peoples as well as family dysfunction and neglect, but in a way that is understandable and at an appropriate age level for children. 

This is also a story about community and family, in all its many and varied forms. Readers' hearts will go out to Truly who is such a lovely soul, despite her dysfunctional family life. Her sweet temperament and connection to those around her, particularly her bond with Andy El (her elderly Salish neighbour) is endearing and through their unique bond, and the connection Truly has with her community in the trailer park, we see the true meaning of family and the adage 'it takes a village to raise a child'. 

Elvis, Me and the Lemonade Stand Summer is a sweet story that tackles bigger issues in bite-sized pieces that are easy for kids to digest and a great way to start conversations about racism, respect for different cultures and the different forms families can take.

My Rating: 4 stars

Author: Leslie Gentile

Genre: Children's Fiction, Middle School, Canadian, 

Indigenous, BIPOC author

Type and Source: Paperback from public library

Pages: 192

Publisher: Cormorant Books

First Published: March 27, 2021

Book Description from GoodReads: It’s the summer of 1978 and most people think Elvis Presley has been dead for a year. But not eleven-year-old Truly Bateman – because she knows Elvis is alive and well and living in the Eagle Shores Trailer Park. Maybe no one ever thought to look for him on an Indigenous reserve on Vancouver Island.

It’s a busy summer for Truly. Though her mother is less of a mother than she ought to be, and spends her time drinking and smoking and working her way through new boyfriends, Truly is determined to raise as much money for herself as she can through her lemonade stand … and to prove that her cool new neighbour is the one and only King of Rock ‘n’ Roll. And when she can’t find motherly support in her own home, she finds sanctuary with Andy El, the Salish woman who runs the trailer park.