The Summer I Turned Pretty [Hardcover]

Jenny Han (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 5, 2009

Belly’s never been the kind of girl that things happen to. Year after year, she’s spent her summers at the beach house with Conrad and Jeremiah. The boys never noticed Belly noticing them. And every summer she hoped it would be different. This time, it was. But the summer Belly turned pretty was the summer that changed everything. For better, and for worse.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This book has what every girl wants in a summer." -- Sarah Dessen, author of Just Listen and Lock and Key

"The Summer I Turned Pretty offers a hard-to-resist combination -- a beach house, summer love, enduring friendship. A deliciously sweet read." -- Deb Caletti, author of Honey, Baby, Sweetheart and Wild Roses

"If I could live inside this amazing book, I would. I would inhale the ocean air and soak up the sun, and I would hang out all day with kind-wonderful-funny-awkward Belly and her two known-'em-forever buds, Jeremiah and Conrad. I'd watch the three of them stop being kids and start being more...and I'd hope hope hope that when Belly falls in love -- 'cause you know she will -- she'd give her heart to the exact right boy." -- Lauren Myracle, author of the ttyl series and Bliss

"This well-written coming-of-age story introduces 15-year-old Isabel, aka Belly, for whom summer has always been the most important time of year. Han (Shug) realistically balances Belly's naïveté with her awareness of the changes the years have brought. Han's novel offers plenty of summertime drama." -- Starred review from Publishers Weekly

"Belly's dawning awareness of her sexuality and that of the boys is a strong theme, as is the sense of summer as a separate and reflective time and place. Readers get glimpses of kisses on the beach, her best friend's flirtations during one summer's visit, a first date." -- Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

Jenny Han is the author of Shug, The Summer I Turned Pretty, It’s Not Summer Without You, and We’ll Always Have Summer. She is also the author of the chapter book Clara Lee and The Apple Pie Dream. A former children’s bookseller, she earned her MFA in creative writing at the New School. She currently works as a YA librarian at a private school on the Upper West Side. She can be found online at www.dearjennyhan.com.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers (May 5, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416968237
• ISBN-13: 978-1416968238
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (114 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #112,600 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars great summer read, August 24, 2009

By 

guitarchick24 (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Summer I Turned Pretty (Hardcover)

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"The Summer I Turned Pretty" is a great beach read, as dreamy as the summer vacation we all wish we could have.

Isabel "Belly" lives for the summer, when she can go to Cousins Beach with her mother and brother for the season. Her childhood has been marked by countless summers spent with the Fishers - Susannah, who is like Belly's second mother, and Susannah's two boys, Conrad and Jeremiah, who have acted like her older brothers, first crushes, and everything in between. But now, at fifteen, Belly finds that her normally idyllic summer has changed, and her relationships with the Fisher boys are suddenly very different.

Simple and sparse, "The Summer I Turned Pretty" is a moderately-paced, introspective novel on growing up and discovering your new niche in a once-familiar world. Belly is a likable, typical teenage girl who has the same outlook and struggles that many girls will be able to relate to. Han captures the transition from childhood to uncertain adulthood nicely, without a lot of angst or "too adult" situations. With the flashbacks to previous summers, readers understand better Belly's inner world and what brings her to the feelings she has during the current summer.

A good book for those who love teen romance, and a pleasant way to while away the rest of your summer. Recommended.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cute summer read, November 2, 2009

By 

Arielle "from BAM Book Reviews" (Midwest, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Summer I Turned Pretty (Hardcover)

Belly, her brother Steven and her mother always go to Susannah's beach house every summer. Susannah has two sons, Jeremiah and Conrad. Susannah and Belly's mother, Laurel have been friends forever, and every summer they spend at this beach house, in Cousin's. Belly was always the one that was left out. The only girl out of the four kids, she was used to having to hang out with herself. But this summer is different. She's pretty.

Belly has always been pretty, but for some reason this summer people actually see her beauty. Her brother Steven is going to be a senior, and later in the summer he leaves with his dad to go on a road trip to look at colleges. Conrad is going to be a freshman in college, and he has been acting strange all summer and Belly wants to know why. Jeremiah is still the same, Belly's true friend, they always stick together. There's a secret that Susannah is keeping from Belly, and she doesn't find out until it's too late. And she also enjoys a summer romance with a boy named Cam.

Belly has to learn that as she gets older, and the summers creep past her, she has to grow up and be a mature, young woman. She battles boys, love, family issues, and her maturity.

The book was a tad confusing at first because there are flashbacks to her previous summers at the beach house, yet I enjoyed this book very much. I am sorry if my review was a little confusing but I am writing this before I leave for my trip, so I am a little excited! Ha. I would recommend this book to every teenage girl who loves romance books with a little something else added to them.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Easy, breezy read with heart, June 3, 2011

By 

Megan Snider "writemeg" (Maryland) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Summer I Turned Pretty (Paperback)

Jenny Han's THE SUMMER I TURNED PRETTY is an engaging coming-of-age story that definitely captures the essence of our favorite season. As someone who has visited the exact same beach house with her extended family for more than a decade, I completely related to Belly's attachment to the home she knows by heart. The easy, breezy and relaxing feel of a day at the beach pulses in Han's novel, but it's too flip to declare this book a "summer read."

Told in flashes between summers past and present, THE SUMMER I TURNED PRETTY well captured the joy and pain of first love -- and those crushes that just won't quit. I really empathized with Belly and fell a little in love with Conrad, too, even though his bad-boy act did eventually grow stale. It was easy to admire Belly's backbone, and the way she stood up against a house full of young men -- no one, not even her brother, could push her around. Though she's many things, Belly isn't used to being "pretty" -- especially not standing next to Taylor, her gorgeous and flirty best friend. That's what separates this summer from all the others. And that's a feeling I related to well.

Though the language was, at times, a little too sparse for my taste -- a little too deadpan; a little too simplistic -- it didn't hamper the emotional impact of Belly's budding relationships and the changes happening as she turns sixteen. I read this one quickly and felt the cool breeze on my face, imagining myself wandering through the sound and huddling close to beach bonfires as the temperatures drop at night. As my own beach vacation looms before me, I wouldn't have wanted to read anything else.