Eleven-year-old Mira is afraid she will "fail at everything, always." Perpetually overshadowed by older brother Henry, a fantastic actor; oldest sister Riya, a gifted dancer; and older sister Jules, an incredible athlete, Mira (or Mimi Mouse to her family) feels left out and inadequate. On top of that, her best friend and fellow nature-lover, Emma, recently moved to Australia, forcing Mimi to explore the woods behind her Massachusetts home alone. At least Mimi has one particular talent: she's a baker. And her father, a food writer, helps her improve her recipes.
But Dad has been acting strange. Freshly returned from a business trip, he ate a "rare and precious chocolate" Mimi brought him from the While Away, a new café in town, and now he's eating nonstop, paying no attention to flavor. Things get weirder still when Mimi is chased up a (banyan) tree by a boar in the woods. There, she meets a boy--Indian, like her Mom--with eyes that are "bright brown, with bursts of gold in the middle." Vik, like Mimi, loves baking and happily steps into her father's taste-testing role while also helping her find special herbs to add to her recipes. Then, two boys who had shown no interest before suddenly fall for Jules, enacting larger and larger displays of affection. With her sisters fighting and her dad eating everything in sight, Mimi begins to worry that something is very wrong.
Rajani LaRocca's middle-grade debut is an entertaining and epicurean retelling of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Mimi speaks the language of food, her opinions on flavor lush and vibrant and her metaphors always piping hot. Midsummer's Mayhem strikes a perfect balance between the pleasant and the melancholy, as sweet and savory as one of Mimi's confections. --Siân Gaetano, children's and YA editor, Shelf Awareness