My Almost Epic Summer (Paperback)

by Adele Griffin (Author)
Key Phrases: lifeguard girl, lifeguard chair, Shady Shack, Drew Fuller, Paul Pelicano (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal
Grade 7-10-Avid reader Irene, 14, keeps a sketchbook of famous literary hairdos for her future salon, Heroine Hairstyles, to be located in L.A., about as far from New Jersey as she can get. Things go awry when she's let go three weeks into her summer job at her mother's beauty shop. Forced to take unglamorous work babysitting two fidgety kids, the teen ignores her friends' e-mails (they're on interesting vacations), is impatient with her young charges, and generally feels sorry for herself. At Larkin's Pond, she meets gorgeous lifeguard Starla Malloy and becomes fascinated by her looks and cutting attitude. Irene tries to cultivate a friendship with the girl and suddenly life goes from dreary to exciting. Starla scoffs at Irene's literary interests but uses a blog to write bad poetry to D, the boyfriend who dumped her, and to make veiled (and atrociously misspelled) digs at Irene. Summer gets more complicated when the latest of Irene's mother's volatile, drifter boyfriends takes off and the teen is left trying to console the heartbroken woman. As she gets in deeper with Starla, who is obsessing over her ex-boyfriend's rejection, Irene finds herself attracted to the young man who spurned the lovely but spiteful lifeguard. Sometimes the protagonist acts like a typical teen and at others she seems too wise and well read for her age, but Griffin has created vivid scenes, believable dilemmas, and satisfyingly human characters in this novel of self-discovery.-Roxanne Myers Spencer, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist
Gr. 7-10. Irene loves hair and plans to open a salon someday. In the meantime, she combines her stylist yearnings with her love of literature, drawing hairdos from great novels in her ever-present sketchpad. After she flops at washing hair at her mother's beauty shop, she's forced to take a job babysitting. It's at the beach, where she takes the kids to swim, that she first observes lifeguard Starla, a beautiful drama queen on whom she gets a girl crush. Soon Irene is checking out Starla's blog, and she quickly realizes that Starla has noticed her--and appointed her the Witness, the person who will observe her vengeance against D., the boyfriend who dumped her. The role includes Irene's watching Starla key D.'s car. With Starla so hung up on D., it's disconcerting for Irene to realize that D. is interested in her. The operative words here are light and fluffy, but since the writer is the talented Griffin, the book is much better than most chick lit. The characters, young and old, are all neatly, if not broadly drawn, and readers will have lots of fun with this. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Speak (May 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0142408050
• ISBN-13: 978-0142408056
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #852,630 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Not what I expected, September 3, 2008

By	Gatorvet (FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: My Almost Epic Summer (Splashproof ed.) (Paperback)

I was very disappointed in the content of this book. I did not like the language or the fact that there were references to domestic violence between the main character's mom and her live-in boyfriend.

5.0 out of 5 stars a great summer read, June 21, 2006

By	Teenreads.com (New York, NY) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: My Almost Epic Summer (Paperback)

After being fired from her mother's salon, Irene has to find a summer job quickly. She'd rather be drawing the hairstyles of heroines from literature, her passion. She carries her notebook and a few classic books everywhere, looking for inspiration.

However, the job she ends up taking doesn't seem to provide much inspiration. She will be spending the summer babysitting young siblings Lanie and Evan in a house that only has television for one hour a day.

Luckily, Irene is creative. She comes up with Food Chicken, a dare-style game where each person puts a food item into a bowl, mixes it up and takes turns taking a couple of bites. But getting sick is not her plan for the summer, especially as she continues to receive emails from her far-away friends about all the acquaintances and boyfriends they're making at their camps and relatives' houses.

At the beach, where Irene and the kids bike to in the afternoons, Evan is "rescued" from a fake injury by gorgeous Starla, the lifeguard. Starla has the nerve to ask Irene for $10 to pose for a drawing in her notebook. Then she starts telling Irene about her love gone wrong, D., who dumped Starla at the end of the school year. She's out for revenge and wants Irene to be a witness to the nasty things she does to get his attention. Then she posts information about these actions on her blog along with her horrible poetry. Is this the kind of friend Irene wanted to make?

As she grows more uncomfortable with Starla, she becomes sort of comfortable with D., who turns out to be Drew, a boy she knew in grammar school. Irene thinks he's a hottie --- and he's interested in Irene, too.

Watching the kids, keeping Starla from going too crazy, and maintaining Drew's attention make for a busy and exciting summer after all. Irene quickly makes decisions about what --- and who --- are most important to her and why.

Adele Griffin is a National Book Award Finalist who has created a fun and very human character in Irene. MY ALMOST EPIC SUMMER will be a hit with anyone who worries about having a boring summer.

--- Reviewed by Amy Alessio

4.0 out of 5 stars Courtesy of Teens Read Too, May 1, 2006

By	TeensReadToo.com "Eat. Drink. Read. Be Merrier." (All Over the US & Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: My Almost Epic Summer (Paperback)

Irene has a dream--to one day open a beauty salon specializing in the hairstyles of famous book heroines. You know, Great Women in Literature, like Franny Glass, Shug Avery, Janie from Their Eyes Were Watching God. The only problem is, she's just been fired from her own mother's hair salon. Fired. By her own mother. Clearly, this hairstyling business is going to need a bit of work.

But her mother and Judith Prior, owner of a secondhand shop a few doors down from her mom's shop, approach her with a proposition for a summer job-- Judith will pay Irene to babysit her two children, Lainie and Evan, for the summer. Suddenly Irene's plans of drawing more hairstyles in her Heroine Heads notebook, of sunning herself on the beach, are thrown out the window in return for watching two kids.

She's relegated herself to a boring summer when she meets Starla, a new lifeguard at Larkin's Pond, and suddenly Irene's days are looking up. Starla is everything that Irene is not--beautiful, outspoken, brazen, and obsessed with boys. As Starla appears to take Irene under her wings, other things begin to fall by the wayside--like Irene's responsibility towards Lainie and Evan, her good sense, and her easygoing nature.

MY ALMOST EPIC SUMMER is a quick, entertaining read that will have you both laughing and cringing at the situations Irene finds herself in. Although not as emotionally involved as most of Ms. Griffin's previous releases, this is a great book for summer reading!