The Summer We Turned Green

A warm, witty comedy about the unlikeliest of eco-warriors, from the bestselling author of Sunday Times Children's Book of the Year The Gifted, the Talented and Me

It’s the summer holidays, and thirteen-year-old Luke has just had his life turned upside down. First his older sister Rose moved 'across the road’ – where a community of climate rebels are protesting the planned airport expansion – and now his dad’s gone too. Dad only went to get Rose back, but he’s out there building totem poles out of old furniture and wearing sandals and drinking mead (whatever that is) with the best of them… Luke is determined to save his dad, his sister AND his summer. So how does he find himself at the top of a tree refusing to leave until the bulldozers stand down?

The Summer We Turned Green focuses on the importance of the climate crisis with a kind, satirical eye, and is slated to be this summer’s funniest must-have holiday read for teenagers. A fresh, funny, heartfelt look at this generation’s must-win battle: one earth, one chance.

William Sutcliffe says, ‘When my teenage son began to take part in the school strikes for the climate, I talked to him and his friends about the issue, and was struck by the urgency and passion felt almost universally by young people about this subject. This generation know in their hearts that they will face the consequences of climate change, and they feel this in a visceral way, much more powerfully than the generations that have preceded them.

These conversations made me want to write a book about the energy, zeal and exuberance of the protest movement against climate change – a novel that looks at this issue not through dire and terrifying dystopian warnings, but as a homage to the brave and often eccentric people who are devoting their lives to the fight to save humanity from itself.’

William Sutcliffe is the author of thirteen novels, including the international bestseller Are You Experienced? and The Wall, which was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. He has written for adults, young adults and children, his books have been translated into 28 languages and sold over 600,000 copies worldwide. His 2008 novel Whatever Makes You Happy is now a Netflix Original film starring Patricia Arquette and Angela Bassett. It was released under the title Otherhood.

His first funny novel for teenagers, The Gifted, the Talented and Me, was described by The Times as ‘dangerously funny’ and by the Guardian as ‘refreshingly hilarious’. It was shortlisted for the YA Book Prize 2020 and was the Sunday Times Children's Book of the Year 2019.