The Summer Before Boys
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5.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
“Vivid and moving. I loved it.” —Rebecca Stead, Newbery-winning author of When You Reach Me
Julia and Eliza are best friends, so when Julia’s mom is sent to serve in Iraq, it makes perfect sense for her to spend the summer with Eliza and her parents. Any other time, Julia would be thrilled to be there. But on top of worrying about her mom, Julia develops her first real crush. The gap between Julia and Eliza keeps widening—until Eliza does something drastic to win back her best friend.
In her follow-up to the award-winning Anything But Typical, Nora Baskin Raleigh has written a powerful, touching story about friendship, first love, and how the people who are farthest away from us are sometimes the ones we need the most.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The intimate tone and absent-mother theme found in several of Baskin's previous books (What Every Girl Knows; All We Know of Love) echo in this coming-of-age novel about the growing pains endured by Julia, the daughter of an American soldier. With her mother stationed in Iraq and her father working, Julia spends the summer with her "cousin" Eliza ("who is really my niece, but since we are both twelve years old that feels kind of stupid"). Growing up together, the two girls have always been best friends, but this summer Julia feels distanced from Eliza, not just because Eliza has a mother who is at home, but also because Julia suddenly finds herself more focused on boys than on the games of make-believe she and Eliza play at the hotel where Eliza's father works. When Julia develops a crush on the son of a hotel employee, the girls' friendship becomes even more strained. Baskin's wistful narrative carefully evokes the changes in Julia's life and attitude: Julia's uneasiness about new romantic feelings and her anxiety about her mother's safety ring true. Ages 9 12.
