“They’re a chorus of memory, talking too fast for me to keep track from the corner of who’s saying what, overlapping and talking on top of one another, remembering together, misremembering together, correcting, hole plugging, tall-tale-ing. It’s not often these guys get to remember Bourne before.”

In the tiny town of Bourne, residents have spent decades living through the kind of changes in the world that the worst of technology creates --- pollution and corruption in equal measure. But three young girls and their mother may be just what the town needs to resolve these issues and bring forth some positive changes.

"ONE TWO THREE is a summer read that is breezy and racks up surprising velocity, but it also leaves you with a sense of having discovered a way of looking at the natural world that you haven’t seen before."

When the water turned green in Bourne at the time the Mitchell triplets were born, the town was in the national news. Even when the fervor of this discovery died down, their mother became an activist, striving in every way for change and accountability. They came of age watching this dedication from a front-row seat. They are the town’s favorite children --- Mirabel, super smart and mute; Monday, Bourne's purveyor of books with the magical ability to pull the exact book you want out of a microwave or a post office box; and Mab, the perfect student, striving to get out of town and go to college.

Amidst this background of justice waiting to happen, the girls witness something really strange: a family moves IN to the neighborhood, not OUT, and old secrets are revisited. Just like that, they are uncovering mysteries from the past before they were even born. Old traumas die hard, which they learn the hard way.

Laurie Frankel tells the story through the eyes of the three sisters. Each is able to explore a different perspective on the proceedings, and has a completely individual voice and outlook. So the book’s vitality and high energy will keep you reading, maybe in just one sitting, to find out what’s going to happen next. The ideas she puts forth about our responsibility to the environment are couched in a cat-and-mouse mystery with unique and intelligent characters.

Summer reads aren’t supposed to be about much of anything. They are typically the kind of books that can get sandy, and be exchanged among friends or left for renters. ONE TWO THREE is a summer read that is breezy and racks up surprising velocity, but it also leaves you with a sense of having discovered a way of looking at the natural world that you haven’t seen before. It’s fun, entertaining and educational…and it moves. What more can you ask for during this summer of insanity? Enjoy!