Review Blurbs for Summer Days at the Five and Dime

(Elm Grove “Press, Old Mystic, CT, 2026)

Grunseth’s retrospective collection is a mirror of the poet as a girl — “always in motion, unruly as [her] hair.” The “motion” that most characterizes these poems is love. Through love, given and received, the past lives on. By sharing this poetry with us, the poet who became “rich” by hoarding pencils in childhood implicitly invites us to notice and stockpile the joys of loving found in our own days. — Phyllis Cole-Dai, writer and poet,co-editor of Poetry of Presence anthologies

In Summer Days at the Five and Dime, Annette Langlois Grunseth treats readers to a feast of memories that serve as both reminders of how life was, and more importantly, how it can still be if we take the time to notice, remember, and love one another. Measuring time as “half-past pretend,” she captures early memories of innocence and imagination. But this is no mere nostalgic romp through the past. It is an intimate portrait of a loving family brought to life in three-dimensional images worthy of the View-Master through which she “visited” Tomorrowland and the Grand Canyon in the 1950’s. For older readers, it will evoke memories of the history through which we have lived: the Kennedy assassination, Civil Rights, Vietnam. For younger readers, it will bring history to life through the intimate recollections of one who has lived through it. This Five and Dime is well-stocked with all the essentials as Grunseth takes us from blissful childhood, through adolescence and adulthood, to “the solstice of shortening years…rumored to be golden.” Grab your purse, stroll the aisles, and discover treasures on every page. –– Gloria Heffernan, author of What the Gratitude List Said to the Bucket List, and Fused.

What began as Annette Langlois Grunseth’s legacy for her children and family, has evolved into a body of work encompassing a lifetime and pertinent to all readers. These poems celebrate a childhood filled with family, neighborhood and community. Happiness was the local Five and Dime; a quarter in your pocket, a penny on the sidewalk, or a box of 64 Crayola crayons. As she matures, the poems transform to show her deep connection to nature, her commitment to family and her concern for the environment. We, as readers, are invited to chuckle at her humor, feel her anxiety, identify with her losses, and share her hope for a bright future. Annette is a storyteller extraordinaire. Summer Days at the Five and Dime is evidence that our histories must not be forgotten. And that they need to be shared. -– Carrie Sherrill, Co-Poet Laureate Door County, Wisconsin 2025-27

Virginia Woolf said the past is beautiful because one never realizes an emotion at the time, it expands later. And thus, nostalgia unlocks memories in Summer Days at the Five and Dime where Grunseth chronicles mid-century America. Strands of long-ago existence — saddle shoes, Cat’s Eye marbles, red wax lips — reflect fun times with an inventive father and sensible mother, a brother, and later, the poet’s husband and children. This poet is made of light, evident in her awareness of twilight, street lights, dark room light, dust motes in sunlight, bright surgical lights, airport ights, and sugary light “wrapped in wonder, soft goodnight.” Grunseth recalls that wonder, innocence, and mischief as she illuminates generational love, creating a homage for her lineage, but for you, too, who may yearn a lookback on your days and nights even as you live them. –– Kathryn Gahl, Author of Yes, No, I Don’t Know

There are few poets who try to cover the arc of an entire life in a single volume; fewer still succeed. But Summer Days at the Five and Dime succeeds where few others do. Grunseth explores her life from toddler-on-a-trike through parent-of-adult-children with unflinching grace. Joys, sorrows, terrors and triumphs share these pages in tightly-woven lines that unfold a life story with simplicity and honesty. Pick it up when you have enough time for the whole book: you’ll have trouble putting it down. –– Peter Sherrill, Poet-laureate of Door County, Wisconsin 2025-27

Olly, Olly Oxen Free! If you run fast enough, the “it” won’t get you, and the zest of life will fill you up until your entire life, all the moments, become poems that journey from childhood to old age and let everyone know just where you’ve been and how magic and tragic and scary and wonderful it’s all been. Love, pain, fear, games, and history slicing like the prow of a canoe through deep waters. Annette Langlois Grunseth’s new book of poetry, Summer Days at the Five and Dime, sings and jostles and laughs and cries as she comes up with poems that celebrate who she is, tells the story of the times she’s lived, and then ends up summarizing time into the meaning of getting old. We all live a journey through a lifetime of moments and days, and in this book, echoes reverberate into the experiences we, the reader, have lived. And what a memorable journey that is! –– Thomas and Ethel Mortenson Davis, former Poet Laureates of Door County, Wisconsin, authors of twenty-two books

Whether it is reflection or inspiration, Annette’s poems take you to the everyday of a life. Remembering the long summer days of childhood, the struggle of becoming an adult, the waves of joy and sorrow that shape a life. Her words not only document a life well lived, but remind us to reexamine our own lives. Remind us that there is confusion, loss, contentment, love, and humor that make us who we have become. Remind us of the people we love and who love us. The things we tried. The success and the failure. The little differences that make us individuals. In her words, we see her. In her sharing, we see ourselves. –– Suzi Shapiro, PhD and John Marshall School Alumna

Summer Days at the Five and Dime charms with its nostalgic look back at the touchstones of a life — childhood moments, turning points, and quiet revelations. What endures is the “person inside,” “born of the stars” and “an arrow of curiosity,” a self that keeps reaching toward wonder. These poems enchant with their fidelity to presence, to astonishment, to the everyday magic of being alive. They inhabit “a land where napkins fold themselves into swans,” inviting readers to see the world anew. Created as a keepsake for family and friends, this collection is sure to becomea cherished companion for anyone who opens its pages. –– Tori Grant Welhouse, author of Padding Loamy on a Brew of Earth