Summer and July
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
From the critically acclaimed author of Train I Ride and Echo’s Sister comes a moving story of friendship between two girls looking for some happiness in a world that can be a little cruel. Perfect for fans of Rebecca Stead, Ali Standish, and Erin Entrada Kelly.
Twelve-year-old Juillet is preparing for the worst summer ever. She and her mom are staying in the seaside neighborhood of Ocean Park, California, for a month, where her mom will be working at the local hospital and Juillet will be on her own, like always.
Her dad is off in Europe with his new girlfriend, and her best friend, Fern . . . well, Juiller isn’t allowed to talk to Fern anymore. Fern took the blame for Juillet’s goth-girl clothes and “not-real” fears, like sharks and rip currents and the number three.
Then Juillet meets Summer, a local surfer girl who knows the coolest people and places around town. With free-spirited and adventurous Summer, Juillet begins to come out of her shell and face the things weighing her down. But when Summer reveals her own painful secret, it’s Juillet’s turn to be the strong and supportive friend.
Named one of Bank Street College of Education's Best Children’s Books of the Year!
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Capturing the urgency and intensity of middle-school friendships, Mosier's (Echo's Sister) affecting third novel is a summer romance of sorts, with a golden-haired surfer girl named Summer at its center. The narrator, 12-year-old Michigan mall rat Juillet, channels frustration about her parents' recent divorce through goth makeup and a collection of phobias. Her overworked ER doctor mother thinks a monthlong trip to California will reinvigorate her daughter, even though she herself spends most of the trip working. Summer is quick to make Juillet her bestie, and the two slowly open up about recent traumas in their respective lives. If Mosier's take on Santa Monica surf culture reads as over-the-top at times, what he gets right is more important: the thin, confusing line between best buddy and queer crush; the simultaneous need for independence and parental presence; and the ways that adolescent identity is a dance between frustration and buoyancy that can reveal itself in friendship. Ages 8 12.
