Customer Reviews

Cold in Summer

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Tracy Barrett has created a wonderful, enthralling read for young adults and adults! I always try to pre-read fiction before giving it to my daughter, and found this book incredibly intriguing. Once I started it, I couldn't stop! I read into the night, woke early to read before breakfast, had it in the car in case I got stuck in traffic, and hid it on my desk under my work to finish it. Truly a "can't put it down" book.

The story is realistic and set in modern times, but highlights the deductive reasoning of an intelligent 12 year old girl to solve a mystery over 100 years old. There's no witchcraft or wizardry necessary - just a wonderfully written, imaginative story that draws you in and won't let go until you've finished the book.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone.

In this book Tracy Barret has excellent writing that took me into a whole other world where I could see the characters and feel the surroundings. I deffinetly would recommend this book. At first one would think "Oh I already know this. Why read the rest?" I promise it gets good. It tells you May is a ghost but the suspense is thrilling and really rewarding at the end.
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Ariadne just moved from Florida into a small rural town in Tennessee where everybody knows everybody. Ariadne misses what she calls "home". May who has lived there all her life is "lost" and counts on Ariadne to get her "home". Many people have tried to help her but can Ariadne be the one to do it? I promise you will understand EVERYTHING once you read the book!

The book Cold in Summer is about a girl named Ariadne. She moves from Florida,the best place on earth,to Tennesse. The town is so rural and everybody knows everyone. One day when Ariadne feels sad a strange dull-looking girl named May Butler comes to her! May tries to help her,Ariadne wonders if she's the only one that see's her! A few people have but it was nearly 100 of years ago. Ariadne's social studies project helps her find the truth about her strange and mysterious friend. She wil do anything to find out the truth,even a life and death situation/conflict!

"Cold in Summer" is a short and fast-moving fiction book set in the small and rural town of Dobbin, Tennessee. It is told from the point-of-view of twelve-year-old Ariadne has just moved with her family from her childhood home in Florida. She's missing where she grew up, her best friend Sara, and the familiarity of her old home.
One day after swimming in the lake Ariadne encounters an odd, quiet girl who dresses in old-fashioned clothing called May Butler. There is something extraordinary about May, she seems to appear when Ariadne is lonesome and then swiftly disappear. Ariadne feels a more of a connection with May than any of the other girls she has met in Dobbin. Ariadne is curious about this out of the ordinary girl and soon finds out that May is trapped, in a place where it is "cold in summer and warm in winter", and is not able to get home. Ariadne can relate to this emotion of being stuck somewhere you don't desire to be and knows that she has to help May. While doing research for a school assignment, and with some assistance from other's stories, she begins to uncover the truth behind an unsolved mystery of the past.
The book was cleverly written because it combines the stresses and problems of moving to somewhere new and trying to fit in and also has a dark mystery involving the past. The story was unconvincing in parts because Ariadne was slow to understand things and you know what is to come early in the story. A lot of the character's and details were described in little detail and it was difficult to imagine the story really happening. However, I liked this book because a lot of people, including me, can relate to the way Ariadne feels when her family suddenly decides to move.
I chose this book to read for my assignment in L.A. mostly because the front cover stood out, there is a girl who is partly transparent looking out from behind the trees, and I wondered who it was and what the title meant, so I checked it out.
This would be an enjoyable book for someone who likes ghost and mystery stories and wants an easy read.

Wow! Tracy Barrett has outdone herself in this latest book. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it before giving it to my children. It was just scary enough without being bonechilling -- a perfect blend for young adults. The lessons taught about forming new friendships while keeping old ones were great. Enjoyable enough for a grownup to read with can't put it down suspense. I think any young adult would enjoy, even boys!

Tracy Barrett's Cold in Summer follows the story of Ariadne as she and her family move from Florida to Tennessee, uprooting all Ariadne has known and thrusting her into an unfamiliar, country environment. Expecting to hate it in Tennessee, Ariadne is intrigued when she meets a strange girl named May who seems to slip in and out of her life with ease and is never seen by anyone else. Or is she? Just who is this May, and why do people clam up whenever Ariadne asks about her?

Barrett's story is well done, with just the right touches of creepiness and mystery to keep the pages turning. Ariadne is a typical pre-teen looking to fit in, and her interest in both May and the area builds as the story progresses. Barrett does a good job of pulling the reader in and keeping you intrigued as she carefully reveals May's tragic tale; only at times did I feel some of the scenes inserted seemed unnecessary in advancing the storyline. Being from Tennessee, I was pleased to see Barrett's enclosure of local tales as well as a few myth-busting insertions. This book is fun and just right for pre-teens looking for creepiness that is not overwhelming.

Tracy Barrett's writing skills are brought to the fore in this can't-put-it-down story in which 12-year-old Ariadne, displaced from her cherished hometown and best friend to a new town, is forced to break old molds and dear habits to get in touch with her new world. Much of this is thanks to a girl named May, who though old-fashioned serves as catalyst to spur Ariadne into young womanhood. It is endearing to read about this character, Ariadne, part of a real, vibrant 21st-century world, and feel her open her mind to the past, and to mystery, and to fear. Readers will recognize little brothers, parents, and the lure of solitary thought. Everyone will find something to enjoy.

In this fine work is a story that I think everyone should read. It has everything. Sadness, chilliness, suspensefulness, funniness, realisticness. . . everything! I LOVE THIS BOOK!~~~