The peach pit

In this second book in the series following 2021's When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Peach Pie, the Peach family tackles turning a run-down historic mansion into a B & B. It's the end of the summer, and the Peaches--Lucy, 12; Freddy, 10; Herb, 8; and their father--are back home in Duluth after their summer adventure running a pie food truck. They are looking forward to getting back to their routines, but Great Aunt Lucinda has other plans. She's decided to move into a retirement home and offers to give her rather dilapidated mansion to the Peaches to fix up, live in, and run as a B & B. With reactions running the gamut from excitement (Lucy and Freddy) to apprehension (Herb thinks the mansion is haunted) to doubt (Dad is not a handy person), the family eventually accepts the challenge. What follows is a series of remodeling challenges and disasters as Dad loses heart on a regular basis and each of the children faces their own fears and limitations. But gradually the Peaches find their stride. Told in third-person narration from a different child's viewpoint in each chapter, the story is deliciously plotted and includes a lovely multigenerational aspect as Herb creates a job for himself helping out at Great Aunt Lucinda's retirement home. Interspersed with black-and-white drawings from Freddy's art-ideas notebook and some recipes, the story is by turns poignant, humorous, and empowering. Characters read as default White. Heartwarming, lively, and sprinkled with poignant truths. (Fiction. 8-12) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.