The Summer We Got Saved

by: Pat Cunningham Devoto

Published by: Warner Books

Reviewed by Yuka Mizushima

A summer in the early 1960s has a lasting impact on the lives of three people. Fans of Devoto will recognize the characters from My Last Days as Roy Rogers.

Tab is a sheltered teenager growing up in Alabama. At the beginning of the novel, her biggest concern is being able to sit at a booth in Towbridge's (a local high school hang out). She is less than thrilled when her liberal Aunt Eugenia secretly arranges for Tab and her older sister, Tina, to attend a Civil Rights camp. Tab's friendship with Domenique Calder, the biracial daughter of a divorced Civil Rights movement leader, exposes her to cruelty and social injustice.

Maudie's big goal is to leave the Tuskegee Polio Clinic. She agrees to start a voting school for members of the Word of Truth Missionary Baptist Church. As a newcomer to the community, she must work to gain the trust and friendship of others. She gradually gains acceptance by teaching the adults how to read and other important life skills.

Charles, Tab and Tina's father, decides to defy his family and support a candidate with a pro-integration platform. This creates tension since Charles' relatives support segregation; they fondly remember Cousin John Lester who was a member of the Ku Klux Klan. Charles' involvement in the campaign makes him realize that he can choose to be unaware or he can choose to do the right thing.

Devoto's characters are engaging and life-like because they are forced to re-examine and re-establish their positions in a changing society. At the end of summer, Tab realizes that Aunt Eugenia "had lifted them out of their place in the puzzle, that she had reshaped them just enough so that now they might never fit back in place." (p.394).

I found myself thinking about the characters and their stories after the novel ended.

Armchair Interviews says: The Summer We Got Saved is a wonderful and thoughtful novel that dealt with issues of racism, privilege and friendship.