Excerpt
"A vivid and moving story about traveling the road between childhood and what comes next. I loved it."
--Rebecca Stead, Newbery Medal-winning author of WHEN YOU REACH ME “Perfectly captures the way a girl’s life can be suspended between the last days of childhood and the glimmerings of her first crush. The Summer Before Boys is a novel of great depth and tenderness.”
--Frances O’Roark Dowell, award-winning author of THE SECRET LANGUAGE OF GIRLS "An extraordinary novel explores the challenges faced by children whose parents have gone off to war.
. . . Baskin adeptly portrays Julia’s ambivalence and anxiety in this thoughtful tale that artfully brings the war to the homefront." - KIRKUS, April 15, 2011, *STAR "Baskin perfectly captures friendship among girls on the edge of puberty, especially the way big dramas work out in small moments. . . . A poignant story of children on the homefront and the ways that a first love can break up longtime friendships and change things forever."
--Booklist, March 1, 2011 "Baskin covers this emotional territory with respect and honesty, allowing readers to see themselves in these complicated, yet likable, girls."
--The Horn Book Magazine