I picked this up at ALA and what a treat it turned out to be! I read this on my vacation at the beach and it was very satisfying. It is set in the 1970s in California and tells the story of one summer from 14 year old Jamie’s point of view. It is a summer of experimenting with sex and boys, but also of drifting apart from friends and finding out that loyalties can be fickle. Although she is only 14 and makes (what I think) are some not so great decisions (her boyfriend is 17), she seems, at times, to the one character with her head screwed on straight. I think that although Jamie does a lot of things that seem way too old for her (namely, having sex), she is definitely 14-a young teen. She wants to do grown up things, but she also longs for her parents to tell her everything is ok. In fact, I thought her relationship with her parents was the best part of the book. Continue reading
