The Summer I Turned Pretty-Jenny Han
Isabel, who has been called Belly as long as she can
remember, practically lives for the summers she spends in Cousins Beach with
her mom Laurel’s lifelong best friend, Susannah, who has breast cancer and has
to rest a lot, and her sons Conrad and Jeremiah. The last person who came was
Belly’s brother Steven. Belly has always been looked at as “Steven’s little
sister” during the long, hot summer days spent in their families’ beach house.
Belly has always been chasing Conrad, the older brother, who was eighteen. Jeremiah
has always been a best friend to her since day one, being very nice and kind to
her. Belly desperately hopes and believes that this summer will be the summer
things change. After a long drive, that Belly feels like was about seven
thousand hours (really about seven hours), her mom, brother, and her pull up to
the driveway in Cousins Beach. Belly immediately ran to hug Conrad and
Jeremiah, who both told her she looked different this summer, and in a few
hours the first night ended with their traditional first day dinner of pot
roast. As the summer went on, Belly was getting mixed messages from Conrad.
Sometimes he smiled and joked around with her, and others he ignored her or gave her irritated looks. Feeling betrayed,
Belly tried to push it all away by beginning to go out with a boy the same age
as her and Jeremiah, which was sixteen. The boy’s name was Cam, and he was half
Japanese and half French, and very into school. While going out with Cam,
Conrad and Jeremiah seem to be acting almost jealous. This makes Belly
confused, and during this confusion, she realizes dating Cam was a mistake and
was just to forget about being hurt my Conrad. Jeremiah, the night Belly basically breaks up
with Cam, tells Belly he’s in love with her, thinking she was over Conrad when
she really wasn't. About mid-summer, there’s a flashback to a previous summer,
when Belly was 13. In this flashback chapter, Belly’s beautiful best friend
Taylor Jewel comes to visit, and ends up hooking up with Jeremiah, though
Jeremiah is still sending Belly lingering looks. When it goes back to the
current summer, the boys, without their mother knowing, find out their parents
are divorcing, likely due to their dad never being around. By now it is the end
of the summer, and very depressingly Belly, Steven, and Laurel head back home. It
has always been Belly’s dream to see the boys (Jere and Con) in their winter clothes with rosy cheeks and
scarves, so she is in complete shock when Conrad calls asking if he can see her
after he droves all the way from his
hometown of Boston, Massachusetts to where she lives, which is left unknown. Belly,
in utter shock, runs outside to see Conrad, and then the book is left on a note
of her and Conrad going for a drive, forgetting everyone like everyone was just the two of them.
Belly has dark
brown hair and brown eyes, with light freckles on her face. She’s fifteen at
the beginning of the summer, but turns sixteen in July. Belly has been in love
with Conrad since she was ten, as she said about it: “Over his shoulder, Conrad
said, “Goodnight, Belly.” And that was it. I was in love”’. Though she tells
people, like Taylor Jewel, that “Nah, they’re just like brothers. I’m just like
a little sister to them.” Jeremiah, Conrad’s brother, is Belly’s best friend,
even after he confesses he’s in love with her when she doesn't feel the same
way. A quote from Belly to support this analysis would be this one: “ I could
barely look at him. Because I didn't. I didn't see him that way. There was only
one person. For me that person was Conrad.” As far as immediate family, Belly interacts like the average teenager with
her brother and her mom. However, Susannah to Belly is almost like a big
sister. Belly’s mom is a lot less of a “cool mom” and is more distant, while
Susannah is fun and will talk about teen things with Belly. This analysis can be supported with this
quote from Belly: “I could say no to my mother or anyone else, but with Susannah,
I could never say no, so I agree to have Cam over for dinner.” Another quote to support this analysis
is: “Susannah loved to talk about
anything girly; she said I was the only person she could talk to about these
kinds of things. My mother certainly wouldn't, and neither would Conrad or
Jeremiah. Only me, her pretend daughter.” This character analysis describes the
main character, Belly, and how she interacts with others.
A major theme in The Summer I Turned Pretty is chasing
after someone you've always loved. The whole book is based off of this teenage
girl’s life every summer with her “summer family”, where she spends the summer crushing
on Conrad, who’s never looked at her more than you would your friends little
sister. An example to support this theme
is this one: “My heart was beating so loudly I could hear it. Everything was
the same but not. They [Conrad and Jeremiah] had looked at me like I was a real
girl, not just somebody’s little sister.” Also, her best friend Jeremiah, the
other boy in her “summer family”, so hopefully tells Belly he’s in love with
her, by saying this: “You've always been my best friend. But now it’s more. I
see you as more than that. You’re cooler than any other girl I've ever met, and
you’re there for me. You've always been there for me. I can count on you, and
you can count on me, but you know that.” Jeremiah saying this is him showing
the theme of chasing after someone he loves. These examples show the theme
of chasing after someone you love in The
Summer I Turned Pretty.
As far as inferring
it and relating it to my life, I think anyone can relate to the theme of
chasing after someone they've always loved, because it’s something everyone
does at some point in their life, because everyone will, no doubt, fall in love
during their life. Whether it lasts or not, it happens to everyone. I can’t 100%
relate to it, because it hasn't happened to me yet. Sure I have had crushes come
and go, which is the one way I can relate to it, However, it definitely happens
to everyone at some point, whether it’s one time or five times. The reasons
stated explain how I, and anyone, can relate The Summer I Turned Pretty.
I would one absolutely
recommend The Summer I Turned Pretty,
as well as the other two books in the series, It’s Not Summer Without You, and We’ll Always Have Summer, to anyone looking for a good, real, raw
quality book. Belly’s story is so real, that it can instantly be related to
anyone out there who has ever loved someone (Or at least thought they did). The
story line is so intriguing that you’ll want to finish it all in one day, like
I did. The story of Belly and her summer family will be sure to capture the
heart of any reader. These reasons I explained are why I would recommend The Summer I Turned Pretty to anybody
looking for a nice summer read.
*The images above relate because a common lie in the book is" i'm fine", and in that image the word LIES is spelled out in pink within the phrase "Im perfectly fine, trust me", and image 2 just sums up the whole series*
Want to purchase The Summer I Turned Pretty? Click here!- http://www.amazon.com/The-Summer-I-Turned-Pretty/dp/1416968296/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1354503448&sr=8-1&keywords=the+summer+i+turned+pretty
Want to purchase the second book in the series, It's Not Summer Without You? Click here!:http://www.amazon.com/Its-Not-Summer-Without-You/dp/1416995560/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1354503456&sr=8-2&keywords=the+summer+i+turned+pretty
Want to purchase the third and final book in the series, We'll Always Have Summer? Click here!: http://www.amazon.com/Well-Always-Have-Summer-Novels/dp/1416995595/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1354503456&sr=8-3&keywords=the+summer+i+turned+pretty
Want to learn more about the author and check out more of her books? Click here!: http://www.dearjennyhan.com/
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