The Summer I Ate the Rich

Gr 9 Up–Gr 9 Up–So many narrative threads get tangled into 17-year-old Haitian American Brielle Petifour’s hungry zonbi coming-of-age—racism, socioeconomic divides, generational entitlement, broken healthcare…and haute cannibalism. Brielle’s mother’s American Dream has devolved into an excruciating nightmare—she can’t even afford the pain meds manufactured by her billionaire employer. While waiting for Mummy at the Banks mansion, Brielle witnesses the hit-and-run of the Banks patriarch, which she happens to record on her antiquated phone. A convoluted path conveniently leads to a Banks Corps internship where Brielle falls for heir-apparent Preston. Meanwhile, Brielle feeds her culinary dreams by catering to the insatiable appetites of the über-rich on weekends. Of course, there’s more, and chameleonic Sewak impressively takes full control, adding and dropping accents, decades, genders, ethnicities, and backgrounds with seamless ease. She’s aided by Brielle’s quintuply-voiced “very own Greek Haitian chorus judging their ungrateful, Americanized sister from afar.”