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by: Paul Mosier
Barnes & Noble Recommended Age: 8-12 years old. (Though I'd probably suggest that you read this book when a bit older, perhaps 10 years old.)
Lexile: N/A
Sensitive Topic(s): Single-parent families, divorce, death, mental health illness
"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." (book summary)
What I Thought:
I have not read any of Paul Mosier's other books (but I will be, soon) so the thing that made me want to pick up Summer and July was the amazing cover. Right from the cover, you could see how different Summer and Juillet's (Juillet is French for July) personalities were. Summer and July was so amazing – I loved how complicated and similar both Summer and Juillet turned out to be during the latter half of the book. At first glance, no one would've thought that they would be so similar, me included. Whilst reading the first half, I thought Summer was a very straightforward person – happy, smiling, every day's a fresh start, but as the book progressed, as we began to learn some of her very sad, troubling, painful secrets that had been so carefully hidden out of sight, instead of seeing her as a very happy, sunny person, when she was getting sad, I had to remind myself that she was allowed to break down sometimes and that she's human, too. I'd finished this book around 12am and I felt like crying. This book touches on so many sensitive and important topics – death, divorce, having a single-parent, mental health conditions/illnesses, etc., yet it was all explained and written so well – never was an important topic rushed or cut short. Definitely one of my favorites and so I recommend you to read it when you have the chance.
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