A Great Summer Read

***Guest post by my mom, Linda Eyre

How about getting kids away from screens this summer by sending them, or even better, going with them on a trip to a place they have never been and could never have imagined? And how about doing it without even leaving your home?

That is exactly what you can do by having them read (or reading to them) a fun, endearing, eye-opening, mysterious, values-driven book that I highly recommend to you.

Remember those summer days when a good book that transported you to places that intrigued and delighted you and sometimes even moved you? Remember the lovely feeling of reading about a family who radiated love for each other even as they experienced challenges and sometimes terrifying experiences together in books like Little House on the Prairie? 

As much as we all love this incredible era of Harry Potter and his over-the-top friends and enemies, there is something so worthwhile about a good old “down home” novel that takes us back to real life, and family love, lived by real people whose real experiences make us feel both amazed and inspired.

All this is an introduction to a book that you and your kids will love and that may give you a glimpse into your parents’ or grandparents’ lives.

My beloved high school friend Eve Crane Dayton was a gifted writer. She came to earth with poems and books in her head and a grand sense of humor. One of her favorite creations was a semi-biographical novel called My Seventh Summer. It features a delightfully precocious seven-year-old, Evie, who grew up on a sheep ranch in Southern Idaho (just a few miles from where I grew up in the large metropolis of Montpelier Idaho: Population 3,286).

Eve’s dream was to someday have one of her books published and enjoyed beyond just her family and friends.

Eve had an astonishing number of health issues and family trials. But during Covid she got up every morning and wrote and wrote and wrote…five novels. Sadly, last summer she was diagnosed with stage four cancer. When we realized that she wasn’t going to survive, I called a friend who was a publisher and to make a long story short, just a few hours before Eve passed, we were able to notify Eve’s daughter that the publisher had agreed to publish her book and when the daughter whispered, “They are going to publish your novel!” into Eve’s ear, a big smile spread over her face and she drifted off to sleep for her last night on earth.

My Seventh Summer, is full of fascinating stories and actual photos from Eve’s childhood as she grew up in the 1950’s in a family of ten children with a heroic and ingenious mom and dad and a gaggle of incredible hard working, fun loving, adventurous siblings who lived an idyllic life of hard work, adventure, and a quite a bit of struggle. 

This book can offer your kids a priceless opportunity to understand a way of growing up that is so different from what they experience. They will be mesmerized by the adventures of little Evie and her family and will find that real stories in books can be much more exciting and meaningful than anything they could ever find on a large or small screen!

You can order My Seventh Summer HERE and it will be at your house in a couple days, ready to start your summer reading.

Thanks in advance for helping make Eve’s dream come true! You and your kids will love Eve’s book!

About Saren Eyre Loosli

Saren adores her five energetic, adventurous kids (ages 13-18) but doesn't totally adore the mess and busyness and bickering that that comes with them! She grew up all over the world, got her Bachelor's degree at Wellesley College and did her Masters in Education at Harvard University (these days, the diplomas on her wall mostly serve as visual aids when she's trying to convince her all-too-smart teenagers that she DOES know a thing or two!). She went on to design and implement enrichment programs for kids and training programs for teachers. But it was only after she finally found her wonderful husband, Jared, and had five children in five years, that her education and work experience began in earnest!

When she's not trying to answer five - or six - different needs and questions at once, she works on this website (she's Founder and Director of Power of Families).

She currently lives in Ogden, Utah and loves reading, hiking, and biking with her family (or by herself when possible!). She often struggles with balance but finds joy in being involved in many things that are meaningful to her.