The Summer Before Boys

gvelocity6 - Have you ever had a friend that stuck with you through thick and thin? In the Summer Before Boys, by Nora Raleigh Baskins, twelve year old girl Julia is spending the summer of 2004 with her uncle, aunt, and Eliza in their New Jersey home. She is staying with them while her dad is working and her mom is stationed in Iraq. She meets this boy and it disrupts her whole summer with Eliza. Will this boy be her first kiss? Eliza is the antagonist because sometimes she and Julia get in fight. The two major conflicts of this book are that they get in a big argument and Eliza goes missing. The turning point in this book is when Eliza is found and everything starts to get solved after that. I really like this book because it is about a modern life and this could really happen. This book really pulls you into it so you don't stop reading it. I would recommend this to 10 years and up

March 21, 2011
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 9â12.

April 1, 2011

Gr 5-8-Julia and Eliza have grown up together as Eliza's mother, though 22 years older, is Julia's sister. The girls have been close friends and go to school together and, now that it's summer, Julia has moved in with her sister, brother-in-law, and Eliza because her mother is a nurse serving in Iraq. With her father working in another town, Julia is feeling untethered and worried about her mother, but the familiar resort where her brother-in-law works and where she and Eliza are part of the staff family is a reassuring place, full of traditions and known boundaries. Eliza is not quite ready for boys, and Julia's discovery of Michael, another child of staff their age, sets up the drama. The language is uneven, sometimes lyrical and sometimes plowing along. The premise that Julia, seeking attention, will want to be involved with boys before Eliza is realistic for 12-year-old girls. Of course, things go awry between them. Throughout the book, Julia's awareness of the danger her mother is in, the news and its impact, and how the adults seem to be oblivious to any possible concern are relayed. While better books are bound to be written to meet the need of children whose parent, especially a mother, is serving in the military, this one is useful to fill the gap. However, combining the discovery of the opposite sex with serious concerns about war, compounded by the unusual family dynamics, makes the book feel unfocused and less than satisfying.-Carol A. Edwards, Denver Public Library, CO

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