Summerland
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| Written by: | Michael Chabon |
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| First published: | September 17, 2002 |
Summerland is a 2002 juvenile/young adult novel by Michael Chabon about a group of young children who seek to save the world by playing baseball. It interweaves elements of a parallel-universe road trip, The Quest and a World Series. It is one of the bestselling children's books of all time.
Its less basic premise is this: Summerland is a magical place where the local Little League gathers to play baseball on a perfectly manicured lawn, and the sun is always shining in a flawless blue sky. However, the small beings known as ferishers, who ensure this perfect weather, are threatened by an ancient enemy and need a hero—a baseball star, in fact—to vanquish their foe.
The ferishers recruit Ethan Feld, possibly the worst ballplayer in the history of the league, as their leader. No one is more surprised than Ethan at their choice, but their faith spurs him on. Also, the prophecy of an oracular clam.
Accompanied by his friends Jennifer T. Rideout, a boy named Thor Wignutt who thinks he's an android named TW03, and a motley crew of creatures that includes a Sasquatch and a werefox, Ethan struggles to defeat giants, bat-winged goblins, and one of the toughest ball clubs in the realms of magic to save the Summerlands, and, ultimately, the world.
Tropes used in Summerland include:
- Affably Evil: Coyote, just… Coyote.
- Applied Phlebotinum: Picofibers, the material that Ethan's dad uses to make his airship, and that Coyote plans to use to destroy the Lodgepole.
- Artificial Human: Thor Wignutt is convinced that he's one.
- Awesome but Impractical: What the general public thinks about Mr. Feld's family airships. As Ethan and his friends find out, they're actually very practical if you need to traverse miles and miles of mountainous terrain, but they seem pointless to the average American family.
- Because Destiny Says So: The reason Ethan was brought to the Oracular Clam in the first place.
- Big Screwed-Up Family: Jennifer T. comes from one.
- Bilingual Bonus: On the team listings near the end, we learn that Cutbelly the werefox's last name is "Reynard."
- Bumbling Dad: Mr. Feld is introduced as this.
- Bungling Inventor: Subverted with Ethan's dad. He's actually a very competent inventor...he just can't find a market for his big project (affordable family airships) because nobody sees the point of it.
- Chekhov's Boomerang: Splinter comes in use several times throughout, and to an extent the Knott and the pain it causes, too.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Early on, Ethan mentions that his Dad owns a baseball card of the famed ballplayer Rodrigo Buendia. Later in the book, Chiron Brown ends up recruiting Buendia (who turns out to be a cynical burn-out) to help the kids out in their quest.
- Chekhov's Hobby: Baseball, considering how you know, the whole fate of the universe rests on it.
- Cool Airship: Ethan and his friends carry out their travels in one.
- Cool Old Guy: Chiron "Ringfinger" Brown.
- Do Not Call Me "Paul": Jennifer T. gets irked when people just call her "Jennifer." Or "Jenny."
- Eccentric Mentor: Chiron "Ringfinger" Brown.
- The End of the World as We Know It: What Coyote is setting out to achieve.
- Evil Albino: Rob Padfoot.
- Evil Redhead: Coyote.
- Fantasy Kitchen Sink: The Summerlands and nearby realms are based on a weird mishmash of Native American and Norse mythology and American tall tales. With wormholes, Zeppelins from Another World, and universe-destroying Applied Phlebotinum thrown in for good measure.
- Flying Cars: The Ferishers regularly get around in flying buses.
- Fluffy the Terrible: One of Ethan's companions is a hulking, monstrous Sasquatch named..."Taffy."
- Genre Shift: Starts out as Magic Realism, but becomes High Fantasy once the Save the World plot begins.
- Handsome Devil: Coyote is described like this.
- Hijacked by Jesus
- Invisible to Normals: The Ferishers are able to get around pretty easily because they're invisible to anyone who doesn't believe in fairies.
- Ironic Nickname: Chiron Brown is nicknamed "Ringfinger" because his ring finger is missing.
- Kid Hero: Ethan, Thor and Jennifer T. are these; subverted slightly in that two of them do drive during the course of the story.
- Kryptonite Factor: All Ferishers can be poisoned by the touch of iron.
- Loads and Loads of Characters: By the end of the book, the main party has swelled up to nine characters, not counting the numerous antagonists and supporting characters. Justified, since the heroes are forming a baseball team and need nine people to fill all of the positions. Inevitably, some members of the party get more focus than others.
- Magical Negro: Chiron "Ringfinger" Brown.
- Magical Realism: The book starts out as this before shifting into full-on High Fantasy.
- Missing Mom: Ethan's and Jennifer T.'s moms.
- Mr. Exposition: Cutbelly the werefox.
- Muggles: To Ferishers and other creatures from the Summerlands, humans from The Middling (our world) are called "Reubens."
- No Smoking: Surprisingly averted.
- The Obi-Wan: Chief Cinquefoil.
- The Omniscient: The Oracular Clam. Pity he has to spit out all his prophecies.
- Our Fairies Are Different: The Ferishers. They're just miniature-sized humans who dress like Native Americans, play baseball obsessively, and have limited access to magic. And they get around using flying buses.
- Prophecy Twist: The Oracular Clam's prophecy is not about Ethan after all; it's about his father.
- Prophecies Are Always Right: Technically.
- The Quest: If you strip the book down to its bare bones, this is essentially the plot.
- Really 700 Years Old: Chiron "Ringfinger" Brown is 109 years old, but hasn't aged in decades.
- Sadly Mythtaken: (taken from the page) Summerland takes place in a world that cheerily mashes together Native American and Norse mythology. This leads to the reveal, utterly brain-breaking if you know your mythology, that Coyote Changer is also Loki and the Devil. Seriously. (And for its next trick, the rules of the Universe are based on those of baseball.)
- Shout-Out: Spider Rose is named after Chabon's daughter, Ida-Rose Chabon.
- One scene mentions that Ethan sleeps wearing an extra-large Hellboy t-shirt. This is likely a Shout-Out to Dark Horse Comics, who published a comic book spin-off of Chabon's previous novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.
- Thinking Up Portals: There is a whole subclass of people, called "Shadowtails," who can do this either to teleport from place to place (called "scampering") or to teleport to different worlds on the Lodgepole (called "leaping"). Thor Wignutt turns out to be one, and he uses his power to take himself and his companions to the Summerlands.
- Took a Level in Badass: Thor.
- Tomboy: Jennifer T., and how.
- Viewers Are Geniuses: Most of the references to Norse mythology likely went right over the head of the target audience.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Coyote and Padfoot.
- World Tree: The Lodgepole. Ethan and his friends are trying to fix it (by playing baseball).
- A Worldwide Punomenon: Ethan's nickname on his baseball team is "the Dog," because he's always hoping for a "walk" when he goes up to bat.
- Zeppelins from Another World: Ethan's dad has developed a new type of Zeppelin that the average American family can use for transportation in lieu of a car. This is our first hint that not everything in Ethan's life is quite normal.