Signed, Skye Harper takes place in a small town during the hot, school-free months of the year. The characters all have their funny or emotional moments, but they mostly seem like cliches rather than real people. The romance between poor girl Winston and the rich boy, Steve, is sweet. However, it is also rushed and unbelievable. What does makes the book memorable is the rich bounty of 70’s references. It was easy to imagine Winston strolling to Piggly-Wiggly in bell-bottoms and flip-flops, getting a Sports Illustrated with Olympic hero Mark Spitz on the cover. Since the novel is told in a series of bite-size chapters, I was able to fly right through it. The down side of those little chapters was that there was not enough time for the reader to get used to the characters. However, the ending earns the book points for setting the reader up to believe one ending, then– bam!– another one comes along. Signed, Skye Harper earns a solid total of three stars for presenting a tale about love, family, and the power of dreams.
