After I read the book, the cover makes a lot more sense. I heard so many compliments about it, but I just didn't get it. Though she thinks she's so ready to grow up, to drive, to date, to make her own decisions, Belly wavers on the brink of young-adulthood.Д«efore I read the book, I really disliked the cover.

What she comes to realize is that growing up means dealing with grown-up things. The boys still seem to see her as the kid that bugged them every summer, tattling when they wouldn't let her play. And she is noticed, but not always in the way she wants. Now that she's older, she just wants to be noticed. When she was younger, she wanted to join in their fun and they sometimes excluded her. You also get the sense that Belly's always been on the outside looking in.Дuring the summer, she's at the beach house with her older brother and two older boys. You get the stories of how she fell in love, how she's been in love with the same guy since she was 10 years old. She's fifteen, turning sixteen, and you get the story of her summer interspersed with flashbacks to previous summers at the same beach house. One thing I liked about this book is that Belly felt so very real to me. It's more of an End-of-summer-getting-back-to-reality kind of book. But this is not a Yay-It's-summer-and-I'm-tanning-poolside kind of book. That's not to say The Summer I Turned Pretty doesn't have its light moments. I know, the title and the pretty little font on the cover and the half-smiling models might have you thinking that this is going to be a light little romance for the beach. Okay, let's get one thing straight: this is not a fluffy beach read. But Belly's caught between wanting to grow up and wanting to cling to the past, and this will be a summer that transforms her more than she would ever predict. She's turning sixteen, she's blossomed into a beautiful young lady, and she's determined to prove that she's not a kid anymore. This summer will be different, Belly can feel it. And she's always tagged along behind her older brother and Suzanne's boys, Jeremiah and Conrad. (Grades 7-10.)Д®very summer since before she was born, Belly's spent at the beach with her family and her mom's best friend's family.

The summer i turned pretty book summary