Seventeenth Summer

February 27, 2012
In the summer between high school and college, 17-year-old Angie falls in love for the first time with local boy Jack Duluth. Their summer romance blossoms, but separation looms. In the fall, Jack’s family will move out of state and Angie will leave for college. Julia Whelan’s narration hits all the right notes. Her rendition of Angie perfectly conveys the innocence, naïveté, yearning, anxiety, and rapture of a young girl discovering love for the first time. She is equally adept at capturing Jack, with his deeper voice, humble honesty, and “aw-shucks” country twang. Whelan also ably responds to directions in the text, e.g., when Angie’s sister is described as speaking in a falsely bright, overly casual voice, Whelan nails her tone exactly. This audio is as breezy, touching, and enjoyable as a summer romance. Ages 12–up. A Simon Pulse paperback.

September 1, 2002
College-bound Angie Morrow falls in love for the first time in the perennially popular Seventeenth Summer by Maureen Daly (1942), written while the author was still in college herself. Diary-like entries depict the trials and tribulations of adolescent amour.