Sure it’s not summer yet, but let’s admit it… we’re counting down the days until school lets out. Until then, let’s spend some time picking out some summer reads. Try one of these if you want to get ready to read by the ocean, lay by the pool, or just chillax with a great book!

SERIES:

Jenny Han’s Summer series

• The Summer I Turned Pretty
• Belly spends the summer she turns sixteen at the beach just like every other summer of her life, but this time things are very different.
   
• It’s Not Summer Without You
• Teenaged Isobel "Belly" Conklin, whose life revolves around spending the summer at her mother's best friend's beach house, reflects on the tragic events of the past year that changed her life forever.
   
• We’ll Always Have Summer
• The summer after her first year of college, Isobel "Belly" Conklin is faced with a choice between Jeremiah and Conrad Fisher, brothers she has always loved, when Jeremiah proposes marriage and Conrad confesses that he still loves her.

Hailey Abbott’s Summer Boys series

Summer Boys

Cousins Ella, Beth, and Jamie are at their family's beach house for the summer and first kisses, last dances, new loves, and old flames all add up to one unforgettable summer

Next Summer

On vacation again together, three cousins share their family's beach house and find a whole new selection of boys--and the problems that go along with dating them.

After Summer

As summer draws to a close, friends Beth, Ella, and Kelsi wonder if their summer romances will last through the school year.

Last Summer

The Tuttle girls make the most of their last summer at Pebble Beach before heading off to college.

Hailey Abbott’s Summer Girls series

Summer Girls
Cousins Jessica, Lara, and Greer, aged fifteen to sixteen, approach their family summer at a Maine beach cottage with very different attitudes, but all look forward to meeting new boys and having some fun.

Girls in Love
Jessica, Lara, and Greer spend their summer in Maine flirting with and hooking up with boys and soaking up the sun.

Lisi Harrison’s Clique Summer Collection

Massie

When Massie is kicked out of her exclusive riding camp and her parents insist that she get a summer job, she becomes the highest-selling Be Pretty Cosmetics girl ever by ignoring the company's philosophy.

Dylan
Joining her mother on a business trip to Hawaii, Dylan plans to work on her self-esteem and getting her mother's attention, but instead finds herself pursuing a rich, attractive boy who only has eyes for a bad-girl tennis star.

Alicia

Alicia travels back to Spain for her summer vacation, and when she learns that the newest pop sensation is in town searching for someone to star in his new video, Alicia vows to get cast, but in order to land the job, she will have to beat out her beautiful cousins.

Kristen
As the only member of the Pretty Committee clique not going on an exotic summer vacation, middle-schooler Kristen might just find romance sticking around to tutor math and attend a secret summer school for gifted students.

Claire
Back in Orlando for the summer, twelve-year-old Claire has difficulty connecting with her former best friends, but decides to prove her loyalty by entering Kissimmee's Miss Kiss beauty pageant.

Kim Harrington’s Clarity Books

Clarity
Sixteen-year-old Clare Fern, a member of a family of psychics, helps the mayor and a skeptical detective solve a murder in a Cape Cod town during the height of tourist season--with her brother a prime suspect.

Perception

Trying to decide between her old boyfriend, who betrayed her but wants her back, and the new boy with whom there are definite sparks, Cape Cod high school junior and psychic Clare is puzzled by a secret admirer even as she tries to solve the mystery of a classmate who has suddenly disappeared.

STAND ALONE TITLES:

Don Calame’s Swim the Fly

Fifteen-year-old Matt Gratton and his two best friends, Coop and Sean, always set themselves a summertime goal. This year's goal is to see a real-live naked girl for the first time. Given that none of the guys has the nerve to even ask a girl out on a date this is quite a challenge. But catching a girl in the buff starts to look easy compared to Matt's other summertime aspiration: to swim the 100-yard butterfly as a way to impress Kelly West, the sizzling new star of the swim team.

Brent Crawford’s Carter’s Big Break

Fourteen-year-old Will Carter's summer gets off to a bad start when his girlfriend leaves him, but then he is cast opposite a major star, Hilary Idaho, in a small movie being filmed in his town and things start looking up.

Black, White, Other... / Joan Steinau Lester

 

TITLE: Black, White, Other: In Search of Nina Armstrong
AUTHOR:  Joan Steinau Lester
OWNED by CCLS? Yes.

Nina's mother is white, her father is black, and her younger brother Jimi is a spitting image of their father. Where does that leave her? Is she black, white or other?

When Nina enters ninth grade, things start to change. Race riots take place nearby and racial tensions arise at her school and among her friends. It all prompts Nina to think about where she fits in. Does it really matter what color her skin is and if it does matter, why is she just noticing it now?

Learning about an ancestor on her father's side who was a slave helps Nina find perspective. But will Nina be able to determine who she is, keep the peace with her family, and keep her BFF? In order for Nina to find peace, she must take a journey (both figuratively and literally) to figure out who she truly is, black, white, other...

M's Verdict: Good read! The story was a relevant coming of age tale that not many books address so well. Perhaps the story may have been more authentic coming from someone who was biracial and was able to give the story a more personal touch, however I did enjoy it. Nina is a believable chigh school student with a typical HS friend whose your BFF one day and then the friend of your enemy. I liked how Nina's father's book about their slave ancestry gave the reader a historical look into the past and compared situations in Nina's realistic and present world to the world of a slave. This book would be a great transition into historical fiction and would provide any teen with a great story on figuring out who you are and how your family stories help to shape who you become.

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