My Journal by Summer McKinny Recap and Review

I just read Summer McKinny’s journal! Here’s my recap, with illustration, and review!

The journal begins with Summer explaining that she got her journal from Makers and Bakers, the store that her Aunt Olivia owns. Summer thinks it’s cool that Olivia is her own boss and wants to be like her one day, but she also loves to bake, just like her 11 year old artist sister Holly, who isn’t like Summer in any other way, and just convinced her parents to adopt a dog, Crescent. Summer also is able to help twice a month at the animal shelter thanks to Fiona, a college student that volunteers there. When Summer’s accountant mom leaves on a work trip for 5 weeks, Aunt Olivia comes to stay with Summer and Holly, and when she comes, she brings along her new cat Fettuccine, which makes Summer worried because Crescent had never met a cat before. After dinner, Summer finds out that Aunt Olivia is afraid of big dogs, and Fettucine steals Crescent’s bed and fights with Crescent. Aunt Olivia suggests that she’d be able to keep Fettecuine in her room until he gets used to Crescent, but warns Summer that she’s an “escape artist”, which causes her to worry even more. The next day, Fettucine and Crescent fight again when he escapes to the living room, and Aunt Olivia bribes Fettucine to get out of the room with a treat, which makes Summer mad that he got a treat for “tormenting Crescent”. To make matters worse, Holly takes a liking to Fettuccine.

When Summer is at the playground training Crescent to respond to her signals now that there’s a cat in the house, Summer’s neighbor Mrs. Li comes with Pixel, Crescent’s best friend, and talks to her dad about how impressed she is with how Summer is around dogs. This inspires Summer to start a dog walking business and walk Pixel when she walks Crescent, but when she tries to figure out her route, Holly butts in and tries to tell her sister what to do. When Summer comes home from school, she notices Fettuccine on top of her backpack, which annoys her, but the walk goes extremely well. Summer’s happy - until Holly is in the living room playing with Fettuccine and tells her she should put Crescent in the yard so she can keep playing. The two fight, which ends in Holly walking upstairs and Summer feeling like her sister only cares about the cat.

The next day after school, Summer is able to bake with Aunt Olivia, but Crescent wants to eat the chocolate cookies, which he is allergic to. Inspired by this, Summer decides to bake dog treats with Aunt Olivia, and she even decides to add another neighbor’s dog, Thor, to her walks. To get Thor and Crescent along, the two play, but Aunt Olivia gets scared about Thor, affirming that she is afraid of big dogs. However, Thor loves the dog treats that Summer baked, which causes Mr. Rosario, Thor’s owner, to hire Summer to bake for him. Summer feels satisfied, until she hears Holly and Aunt Olivia playing again, wondering if her aunt loves Holly more than she loves her because she doesn’t like dogs.

The next day, Summer volunteers at the animal shelter, where she meets various animals, including a cat named Daphne that she takes a liking to. She realizes that now that she has a business, she can use her money to buy supplies for the Four Paws Animal Shelter. The day after that, after Summer walks Crescent, Pixel and Thor, Aunt Olivia says that she can watch Crescent if she ever needs help. Confused since Aunt Olivia doesn’t want a dog, Summer asks why, but Aunt Olivia clarifies that Crescent is her “dog nephew”, which makes Fettuccine Summer’s cat cousin. That night at their Family Fun Friday campsite, Summer tells Holly this, which makes Holly mad because Summer wasn’t being nice to Fettuccine. Summer gets mad at Holly as well, which causes her to leave the camp and the two to not talk to eachother.

Summer and Holly still aren’t talking when Aunt Olivia invites the two in her room to learn how to knit, which they accept. As Summer starts to knit a blanket for the animal shelter, Fettuccine takes the ball of yarn and starts playing with it, and Summer plays with him, feeling like the cat isn’t so bad after all. The next time Summer walks the dogs, however, she asks Holly to help, which she only accepts because Summer pays her half the money - and she bosses Summer around the whole time.

Summer finds out from her teacher, Mrs. DeClemente, that a local business fair is happening for kids, and a cash prize will be given for the top 3 ideas. Summer decides to make dog treats and call her business Waggy Pup Tails, and hand out flyers about her dog walking business, as well as offering grooming and help with training. She asks Holly to help, and she only helps so she can save to buy a new set of pastel paint pens.

The next day, Fettuccine escapes outside the porch, and Crescent gets off his leash and follows him. Olivia gets really scared, and after Summer finds Crescent, she finds Fettuccine too. Holly blames Summer for Fettuccine’s escape, with Olivia on the verge of tears and saying that he doesn’t like being stuck in one room, and Summer feels terrible. After worrying that Aunt Olivia will leave because of her, she gets up early and sees her injecting Fettuccine with insulin, which if he goes without it for a while, he will get sick. Summer feels bad for Fettuccine and how she treated him, and promises to make it up to him.

One day, Summer has to walk Pixel and Thor alone because Holly stayed after school for art club and Aunt Olivia got a flat tire, leaving Crescent alone in the yard. Summer’s neighbor, Mr. Wylie, gets annoyed at Crescent’s barking, and Summer blames Holly for bailing on her and Holly says that she never wanted to walk the dogs but Summer forced her to. Holly doesn’t talk to Summer for a while, while Summer makes Mr. Wylie cookies to apologize - and also makes a cat toy for Fettuccine to apologize for how she treated him.

Summer gets into the business fair and takes advice from Aunt Olivia on how to make her business the best, while Holly still largely ignores her. After that, Crescent jumps at Fettuccine, but instead of blaming Fettuccine for getting out of Aunt Olivia’s room, Summer tells Crescent to behave and asks Fiona at the animal shelter for advice. First, Summer gate-trains Fettuccine and Crescent to get them along. Meanwhile Holly walks the dogs with Summer and apologizes for bailing on her, and Aunt Olivia gets her a cart to decorate to use at the business fair. Instead of dominating the decoration for the cart, Holly takes Summer’s ideas into consideration, and even makes her business a logo. A week later, Summer takes down the gate, and Crescent and Fettuccine get along, which makes Summer feel very relieved.

Soon enough, it is time for the business fair. Holly walks Crescent so Summer can focus on baking, her family helps her finish the dog treats, and Holly surprises Summer with a T shirt with the Waggy Pup Tails logo. The fair goes well for Summer, her mom comes home just in time for the fair, Summer wins Best Presentation and a $500 cash prize, Crescent and Fettuccine finally get along, and Mom surprises Summer with a new pet: Daphne the cat!

I really liked this journal! It feels like American Girl is finally getting used to this new format of storytelling, and isn’t compromising the story anymore in favor of keeping it short. Despite the actual journal only being 71 pages, there were a lot of storylines and details within, the characters were fleshed out in a way that the last few journals were kind of lacking in, and overall, they really seemed to nail it. As the Girl of the Year Friendship Fight Trope’s biggest hater, however, I really appreciated how most of the conflict in this book was sibling related instead. There hasn’t been a Girl of the Year this close to her sibling since Lea, I believe, so it was really refreshing to see. One thing I will critique, though, is how things just seemed to happen without the main character (Summer) working for them. The way she decided to start her business was pretty much sheer coincidence - if Mrs. Li wasn’t at the playground talking about her that day, none of this would have happened - and as a writer, one piece of advice I have gotten throughout the years is to make sure that your characters don’t have “Unearned Gifts” given to them throughout the story, that they work for all the plot progression they get. There were multiple instances where that didn’t happen, which was very frustrating, but besides that, I really liked this journal and can’t wait to read Summer’s next book!