Author: Anne Brashares
Published: Corgi Childrens (March 4th 2010)
No. of Pages: 288
Grade Rating: B-
Three girls. One summer. Their friendship to salvage ...Ama, desperate to live up to her family's expectations, finds herself on an outdoor adventure summer camp. Can she stick it out or will this be the first time in her life she's ever failed anything? Tomboy, loner Polly discovers that her grandmother used to be a model and decides she's going to follow in her footsteps - even if it means starving herself to get thin. Jo's parents' are still grieving the death of her older brother and she's stuck in the middle of their messy divorce. She's got her own problems this summer too - has she made a mistake by turning her back on her old friends? Having let their friendship fade, can these three girls, with their three very different lives, struggle through the summer without each other, or will they realise they've made a mistake?
The Summer That Changed Everything was a sweet novel with morals circling around the friendship of the three main characters: Polly, Jo and Ama. Anne Brashares has created the perfect book for young girls filled with love, loss, hope and the most important of all, friendship.
I've never read anything by Brashares even though I was aware of the very successful 'Sisterhood' series which was made into two films. I was expecting a nice, girly read perfect for the beach in which I would get a sense of a strong friendship. What bothered me was how the 'friendship' between the girls didn't really seem like one at all. In fact, they hardly spent any time with one another throughout the whole book. And when they did, they were being nasty to each other which immediately made me doubt the effectiveness of the story and if what I was lead to believe was true. Although this was a refreshing read, I didn't really enjoy it as much as I thought I would.
I also found it hard connecting to any of the characters. Of course I did have my similarites and differences with every one of the girls but I didn't seem to really like any one once I'd finished. I found Jo to be very selfish and was blatantly unaware of how she'd really been a bad friend until her own friends turned against her. I also found Polly to be quite annoying whilst acting immature for her age and to be honest, I didn't really have any feelings towards Ama. Although I did think that the alternating third person chapters worked well, I thought it would have been better if it had been a first person narration.
Even though I had my negativities with the book, I couldn't ignore the fact that most tween/teenage girls will definitely like it. I liked it but I didn't love it either. With an engaging plot and problems in the shape of boys, parents and friends this will definitely be a story each girl can identify with.
4 comments:
I think I've gone off Anne Brashares. Nothing by her appeals to me anymore. That said, it's good that this will appeal to young women.
I haven't read anything by this author, and I'm a bit sceptical. But, glad to hear that this book would appeal to younger audiences!
I don't know if I will try this one, it sounds too young for me. :) Sorry that you couldn't connect with any of the characters, that makes the reading of a book difficult.
Agreed on everything. It was an overall cute story.
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