Neva Beane's summer is not exactly shaping up the way she was hoping. She's missing her musician parents who are on a European tour, and she loves her grandparents, but sometimes their ideas are just too old-fashioned. Take the way they talk about Michelle, an older girl who moved in across the street. She's beautiful and wears clothes to show off her figure. Neva is mesmerized by Michelle's confidence, but her grandparents call the older girl fast and tell Neva's older brother to stay away from her.
Clay is another problem. They used to be close, but now he's never home. He's either working as a lifeguard at the pool or volunteering with community outreach. Plus, he also saw Neva admiring her own new figure in the mirror, and she's just waiting for him to embarrass her.
Then there's her best friend Jamila who is upset about Neva's interest in Michelle. Jamila should know she and Neva are best friends, so why is she acting like this? When Neva finds out Jamila's family is going away for the summer she feels lonely and jealous.
She decides to take an interest in community organizing and the upcoming March, but how much of that interest is real, and how much is about her new friendship with Michelle and her frustrations with Jamila? This is definitely not the summer she had in mind.
This new book by Christine Kendall is about a girl on the cusp of growing up and seeing the world beyond her own little world. Neva's obsession with the dictionary and her vocabulary words is fun, and she feels like a real person. I just wish the book had started with something other than her obsession with Michelle's physical appearance and comparing herself to the older girl. It's not really a big part of the story, but I think it could put off some readers. It's a bit misleading as to the direction of the plot. This is a good pick for upper elementary and middle school readers.
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