Rachel Hall

Rachel Hall

Block B

1/31/13

The Summer I Turned Pretty

Jenny Han

Realistic fiction

Just right

157

1. In my book the main character Belly, met a new guy that she really likes in Cousins. Cousins is where she goes every summer, ever since she can remember. The house belongs to her mom’s best friend, and her two sons, Conrad and  Jeremiah. Belly feels alone because the two guys like to hang out and do guy stuff with Belly’s older brother Steven. Until, Belly recently went to a bonfire and meets a boy named Cam. Belly learns to really like Cam and they’ve hung out a couple of times. But, Conrad and Jeremiah do not approve. They are so over protective of Belly because she is like a little sister to them, so they are trying to keep Cam far away from Belly. Cam invites Belly to a party at his friend Greg Kinsey’s house. Belly is having so much fun just being able to spend time with Cam, but then Conrad and Jeremiah show up and embarrass Belly and Cam. Conrad drinks too much and starts to get into a fight with another guy at the party, but then Belly steps in and saves Conrad. She and Conrad are sitting in the car waiting for Jeremiah to come out and drive them home. Belly has always had a little crush on Conrad. So, when he feels her hair and says “Belly..” like he’s about to tell her something, Jeremiah comes to the car. Which breaks a moment that they’ll never get back. Belly wonders for the next couple days what he would’ve said if Jeremiah didn’t walk in on them. Belly is now trying to figure out if she still has a bigger crush on Conrad, or if she has finally moved on and wants to be with Cam.
2. I really like this book, I like it because I feel like I can relate to it. This book is told from a girl’s perspective and it has a lot of things in it that really girls would understand more than boys. Some things like boys, drama and friends. Belly encounters many of these problems as she discovers feelings for more than one person. This book is so realistic, which is another reason that I love it. Girls in high school and even sometimes in middle school go through the same struggles that you see happening in this book. You never really know what Belly is going to do, which keeps you guessing. This is such a great thing to have be in a book, because that means its a page turner. The plot was very well built, I liked how it only talks about her life during the summertime. Normally all the books these days have similar topics but with people that they go to school with. This is what makes this book unique, is that its told from the summer. Which I think is much more fascinating than just a school year, because most people I know like summer over the school year.
3. I think the theme in this book is contradiction. Belly feels very contradicted with many things. An example of this is who she wants to be with. She has always liked Conrad, and she knows everything about him, since she’s known him her whole life. But then when the new guy Cam comes into her life, she has no clue anymore. Cam views her as an equal, maybe even a girlfriend? But Conrad, who just sees Belly as his little sister, a little girl. He doesn’t seem to think of Belly in a more than a friend way. This serves as a very conflicting or contradicting subject for Belly. Since she has always liked Conrad, but inside she knows that he will never like her back. But, she also really likes Cam, who likes her also. She doesn’t know what she wants anymore. 
4. My favorite character is Jeremiah. He is one of the boys that Belly spends the summer with in Cousins. Jeremiah is so sweet to Belly when she’s upset, and includes her when she feels like that she doesn’t belong. Conrad and Belly’s older brother Steven like to do guy things which doesn’t include Belly so Jeremiah is usually the one that makes her feel better. He is also very level headed is makes good decisions. When they followed Belly to Kinsey’s party, he knew that Conrad would be drinking. Jeremiah decided not to drink because then they wouldn’t be able to safely get home. When Conrad was very drunk, Jeremiah was glad that he made the decision to not drink, because now they were safe.
5. My least favorite character is Steven, Belly’s older brother. He is so mean to Belly, which every older brother is to their little sister, but it just bothers me so much. Steven makes sure to embarrass her about anything and everything, just to get a good laugh out of Conrad or Jeremiah. Steven also excludes her the most out of all of the boys when they are going to do things. Some things are like camping, parties, bon fires, fishing and more summer activities. When either of the boys try to stand up for Belly and tell Steven to stop teasing Belly, he just makes fun of them saying that they like her. But Belly and Steven also care for each other, and you saw this earlier on in the book. When Steven and Belly’s dad came to pick up Steven for touring colleges, they wouldn’t be seeing each other for a couple weeks. You see that Belly gets sad to see her brother leaving and that she won’t see him for a long while. 
6. I think that by the end of the book Belly will finally make her decision of which boy she will want to be with, Conrad or Cam. I think that she’ll come to realize that her and Cam weren’t really meant to be together, and figure out that Conrad is the one that she truly likes. I think that she and Conrad will end up together just by the way that she acts like around Cam and how she acts around Conrad and the difference between the two. She’s a little more shy around Cam then Conrad, and she has known Conrad for much longer so she’s closer and knows more about him than Cam.  The author is sort of starting to drop hints about that this prediction is true since the book is coming to a close. The most recent is when Cam takes Belly to a drive in and he doesn’t make a move or anything and it was almost like he didn’t even know that Belly was there. This made me think that he doesn’t care about her as much as she does about him.