Summertime & The Livin’ is Easy is a short story based on the daily summertime life of a 10-year-old girl named Jasmine and her family. Jasmine and her family live a tough life as they suffer from poverty and the loss of her father, In the summer, Jasmine works with her mother to clean the home of a wealthy family, while her stepdaddy and older brother work to clean windows. Jasmine’s stepfather is unhappy with life and takes out his frustration on his stepchildren through physical abuse.

Jasmine loves her brother Frankie and her Mama, and she's happy living with them even though their stepfather is very mean to her and Frankie. Jasmine always helps her mother out with cleaning the houses of the Harris family so Mama can provide for her and Frankie. She marvels at her mother's kindness such as when Mama buys milk for a homeless man even when they are low on money. One day after Mama and Jasmine get home from cleaning the Harris family's house, Stepfather tells Frankie and Jasmine to go to the store and buy some bread.

     In Summertime and the Livin’ is Easy by Edwina Dorch, we meet Jasmine, a 10-year-old, bright, spunky Black-American child and her 11-year-old brother, Frankie.  We are led to surmise that they are growing up in the American South, perhaps sometime in the 40’s or 50’s. Her mother works as a housekeeper for a Caucasian family and Jasmine sees the stark contrast between her family and the family of her mother’s employer.