Just for the Summer - Hardcover

Mango, Karin N.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060240385 ISBN 13: 9780060240387

Publisher: Harpercollins Childrens Books, 1990

Synopsis

Working as a lifeguard at a New Hampshire beach, Jenny finds herself falling in love with a reclusive boy tormented by the death of his father

About this title

From School Library Journal:

Grade 7-10-- Jenny is spending the summer working as a lifeguard at a New Hampshire lake. Here she meets Rollo, an intense, brooding, unfriendly boy who has not been able to come to grips with his father's apparent suicide. She has left behind Alec, a deaf boy whose romantic attentions she rejected and, as a result, is now suffering from guilt feelings about her behavior toward him. This novel is a full of emotions and tension. Jenny is determined to help Rollo despite his initial angry rejection of her. She persists, and succeeds in helping him resolve his inner conflicts about his father's death; he, in turn, helps her to understand her tormented feeings about Alec. It sounds good but, unfortunately, the plot development is not well done, for too much is attempted and then quickly resolved. In only a few weeks, Jenny is able to help Rollo make peace with his feelings. Following a climactic scene in the barn in which his father died, he finds himself "exorcised" of all that was troubling him for so long. Then he is able to help Jenny bring her painful emotions about Alec under control--not entirely believable feats for two troubled teens. Jenny's relationship with Alec from the time she was very young is revealed in flashbacks, a technique that is likely to confuse readers. Also, there are too many characters interwoven into the main story line. This is not a necessary addition to bookshelves already crowded with problem romances for and about teenagers. --Dorothy L. Lilly, Grosse Pointe North High School, MI
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harpercollins Childrens Books
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 0060240385
• ISBN 13: 9780060240387
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1