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The Summer Before Boys

by Nora Raleigh Baskin (Goodreads Author)

3.58 of 5 stars 3.58 · rating details · 405 ratings · 123 reviews

Julia and Eliza are best friends. Julia’s mother is serving in the National Guard in Iraq, and Julia spends all of her time trying not to think about what could happen. So the girls lose themselves in their summer, hanging out at the resort where Eliza’s father works. But when they meet a new boy, neither of them is prepared for how it impacts their friendship, and Julia h...more

Hardcover, 208 pages

Published May 10th 2011 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

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Jul 04, 2012 Josiah rated it 3 of 5 stars

"A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart, and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words."

―The Summer Before Boys, P. 158

Before reading Anything But Typical, I had little knowledge of Nora Raleigh Baskin's writing. I guess that I'd probably seen her name on a few books, but none of them had especially caught my attention until I began to hear the Newbery buzz generated by Anything But Typical. It was a book that I ended up reading mostly as an afterthought, just to...more

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Sep 17, 2012 J Lewis rated it 5 of 5 stars

This story is about a girl, Julia, and her relationships with her family and the boy that she has a crush on. Julia has to make a choice between either staying with her cousin or meeting up with the boy she likes. By choosing to meet with the boy, her cousin got scared and came to a tree that she had hung out at with her friends in the town. The town then gose on a hunt for her to find her. Julia is sick to her stomach and fears that Eliza, her cousin, is dead or has been kiddnapped. Her crush...more

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Aug 26, 2012 Anne rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, realistic-fiction, young-adult

Julia and Eliza have been best friends for forever. Oddly enough, they are also aunt and niece even though they are the same age. When Julia's mom is sent to serve in Iraq, she goes to live with Eliza for the summer. Both girls are really excited about this prospect as they always have fun playing imagination games together and just hanging out. But Julia's worry about her mom and the girls changing interests make this summer very different for them.

I really didn't think the games they played se...more

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Jul 14, 2012 Ashley rated it 3 of 5 stars

I thought this story was very nostalgic, but it may be hard for a child to follow. There are a few different story lines. It often switches from what the girls are pretending to what is currently happening without warning. A lot of the references would have no meaning to a child today (cabbage patch dolls, beanie babies, etc).

This story is about Julia and Eliza, best friends and also family. Julia is technically Eliza’s niece, but they are the same age so they call each other cousins. Julie is...more

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Mar 25, 2012 Claire rated it 3 of 5 stars

THE SUMMER BEFORE BOYS

3/5 STARS, OKAY FOR AGES 10+
The summer before boys is about a girl named Julia who is best friends with her niece, Eliza. (They call each other cousins because they say that being aunt and niece is just ridiculous) Julia is coming of that age when a girl finally starts noticing boys. Eliza, who is Julia's age, is still in the dark about boys. While on summer vacation, Julia and Eliza run into a boy named Michael. Julia begins to have feelings for him, and at 12, she's dec...more

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Feb 22, 2012 Arthur Pengerbil rated it 4 of 5 stars

Reading Level: Grades 4-7

Julia and Eliza are best friends. They are also family. Even though they are the same age, Julia is Eliza's aunt. Of course, Eliza doesn't call her best friend "Aunt Julia" but still...they are more tied together in ways most friends are. That was never a problem...until the summer they turned twelve

Eliza still likes to pretend, just the way she and Julia have done all their lives. But Julia finds it harder and harder to enter that make-believe world. There are too many...more

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Jan 22, 2012 Annie rated it 3 of 5 stars

If I were to describe this book in one word, it would be nostalgia. I think this is a fantastic work of realistic fiction for a fourth or fifth grader, but would lose its appeal for older middle schoolers because of how young it is.

The book takes place one summer when Julia spends the summer living with her best friend (and niece--it's confusing). Julia is with Eliza's family because her own mother (their mutual father's second wife, presumably) has been deployed as a nurse to Iraq and her fathe...more

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Aug 16, 2011 Chelsea rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: middle-grade-fiction

Baskin's book perfectly captures that transition from the make-believe of childhood to a growing awareness of one's self in the larger world. Julia and Eliza have been best friends for as long as they can remember, knowing each other well enough to disappear into their imaginary worlds in an instant. But the real world has become a lot harder to ignore since Julia's mom was deployed to Iraq. Now they have the whole summer to spend together, but Julia is finding it more and more difficult to lose...more

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Jul 11, 2011 Page Turners Blog rated it 3 of 5 stars

The Summer Before Boys is a sweet, unconventional coming of age story. Very innocent.

Julia and Eliza are best friends, but their relationship goes deeper than just friendship - they are also aunt and niece. They are use to spending vacations together but this year, is a little different. Julia's mom has been sent to Iraq and her father is busy at work; she is sent to spend the whole summer with her sister. Julia is excited about staying the summer, hanging out with her best friend Eliza and get...more

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Jun 17, 2011 Bdalton rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: children-s-fiction

This is the story of two friends, Julia and Eliza, who are both 12 through most of the story. Julia is actually Eliza's aunt but they are also best friends. When Julia's mother, a national guard member, is sent to Iraq, Julia goes to live with Eliza for the summer. Julia falls for a boy and makes a bad decision that could change her relationship with Eliza forever.

This story does a good job of conveying a child's anxiety of having a parent serving in a war zone. This is a daily preoccupation, a...more

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May 10, 2011 Rachael rated it 4 of 5 stars

Julia and Eliza are best friends. Technically, Julia is Eliza’s aunt, but since they’re practically the same age, they just tell everyone that they’re cousins. This summer, Julia’s mother is serving in the National Guard and her father is too busy with his job, so Julia gets to stay with her Aunt (technically sister) and Eliza. And at first it’s great. Spending time with Eliza at the resort just up the hill is the perfect way to distract Julia from her worries about her mother’s safety. And it’s...more Julia and Eliza are best friends. Technically, Julia is Eliza’s aunt, but since they’re practically the same age, they just tell everyone that they’re cousins. This summer, Julia’s mother is serving in the National Guard and her father is too busy with his job, so Julia gets to stay with her Aunt (technically sister) and Eliza. And at first it’s great. Spending time with Eliza at the resort just up the hill is the perfect way to distract Julia from her worries about her mother’s safety. And it’s fun, all the laughing and hiking and make-believe. But then everything changes with boys. Neither girl is prepared for what a single boy will do to their friendship, but in finding out, they’ll discover the things that really matter most.

The Summer Before Boys is a sweet and poignant middle grade coming of age novel. Lately, I haven’t found myself reading much middle grade, partly because it’s been a little while since I considered myself part of that age group, but The Summer Before Boys is the perfect example of why I shouldn’t neglect middle grade in my reading list. For me, the only thing that defined this novel as middle grade was the age and maturity of protagonist Julia. As a preteen, she’s just beginning to discover the novelty of boys, and she doesn’t quite know how to manage boys, friends, and family. Older teens may find Julia’s youngness a little difficult to personally relate to, but I found her character to be completely endearing. I could empathize with her struggles and her feeling that no one really understood. But what truly elevated this novel above middle grade status for me was Baskin’s writing. The sophistication in the way she tells Julia’s story is what makes this novel appropriate for older readers. Julia’s story is interspersed with flashbacks as well as facts and anecdotes about women in US military history. These little asides added so much depth to Julia’s character and made her much easier to understand. I was truly moved by this story, and I think that The Summer Before Boys has the power to affect all readers as well.

The Summer Before Boys will be enjoyed by fans of The Teashop Girls by Laura Schaefer and The Darlings Are Forever by Melissa Kantor.

reposted from http://thebookmuncher.blogspot.com (less)

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Apr 22, 2011 Brandi Kosiner added it

The Summer before boys captures perfectly the awkwardness and transition of age 12 to 13. It had a real childlike quality to it, and I really enjoyed reading it.
It's short, and I'm not sure if it's classified as MG or not, but it's very clean. It does have some darker (not extremely dark, but...) issues. It's the first book I've read where a mom is in Iraq. She's dealing with this in the whole book, and I think that it's a noble and needed thing to talk about in contemps. (maybe dark isn't ri...more

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Apr 05, 2011 Sarah rated it 3 of 5 stars

The Summer Before Boys by Nora Raleigh Baskin is a whimsical and poignant (my overuse of this word is going to kill me but truly this is a poignant story) about two little girls on the verge of growing up and maturing, but at very different speeds.

Synopsis:
Julia and Eliza are best friends, spending the summer together. Julia's mother is serving in the National Guard and Julia spends all of her time trying not to think about what could happen. So the girls lose themselves in their summer, hangin...more The Summer Before Boys by Nora Raleigh Baskin is a whimsical and poignant (my overuse of this word is going to kill me but truly this is a poignant story) about two little girls on the verge of growing up and maturing, but at very different speeds.

Synopsis:
Julia and Eliza are best friends, spending the summer together. Julia's mother is serving in the National Guard and Julia spends all of her time trying not to think about what could happen. So the girls lose themselves in their summer, hanging out at the resort where Eliza's father works. But when they meet a new boy, neither one of them is prepared for what it does to their friendship.
Nora Raleigh Baskin delivers a poignant look at the way a first crush can come between best friends and the importance of hanging on to the time you have as a kid before rushing into growing up. (B&N.com)

Julia and Eliza are twelve year old best friends but things are changing for Julia. Her mother is currently deployed in Iraq and Julia is staying with Eliza for the summer while her father works. It should be an ideal summer for these girls except that Julia worries constantly about her mother and then, suddenly, experiences a new kind of worry. Boy worry. The kind where you wonder if your hair looks okay, if you are "glistening" from the sun, where you carefully plan out your moves for the day in the hopes of seeing him. But Eliza is not on the same page. She is still in a world of make-believe, where the girls become captives and have to trek around the mountains. She still yearns to play with dolls. Julia finds those desires fading as reality has touched her world in new ways.

This is a coming-of-age story in that restless, uncomfortable way that can only come from turning twelve to thirteen years old. Such an awkward age group, where things do change dramatically but not at always at the same speed for close friends. I enjoyed the reality of this situation, as Julia wavers between being a child and enjoying her imagination, creating games and scenarios with Eliza, while at the same time, she longed to escape that because she wanted to pursue new desires. She did not want to lose Eliza and in fact, Julia still greatly enjoyed playing Lynette and Lester, playing dolls, but at the same time, it was obvious that she was maturing faster than Eliza. The author created a good case for this maturity by showing Julia's worries over her mother. Will her mother return from Iraq? Will she come back different, like her classmate Peter's dad? Julia has been forced to grow up sooner because of her family life.

And while I was thoroughly enjoying the reflections Julia was going through, part of me wondered if a twelve-year-old reader would truly be able to identify with Julia in this way. Julia is extremely self-possessed and seemingly all too aware of the changes she is going through. I'm just not sure how authentic this will be when being read by tweens of this age. For me, I found it to be very true-to life, but that is based upon reflection on this point, on having the maturing to step back in time and examine my own feelings while growing up. Can you do that when you are actually that age, in the moment, experiencing those feelings? I'm just not sure.

Nonetheless, I truly enjoyed this story. It has a childlike quality to it that matches the changes Julia is going through. She is not quite a child but not nearly a teen. At one point, she receives her first cell phone and I thought that was a great demarcation of her life before and then after, when she starts experiencing feelings for boys. These feelings cause unintentional conflict in her relationship with Eliza, unintentional slights and cruelties that build up until even Eliza cannot ignore what Julia is doing. The setting also proves to be perfect for this book. Summer, that time when everything is warm, sunny, and wonderful, but where subtle changes often take place, rendering someone new and changed by the time fall comes along.

Intertwined in this story is also the stories of women serving in the military. I loved the little snippets that the author includes in the narrative. When Julia's mom is shipped overseas, she becomes somewhat more involved in what it truly means to be a woman serving in the military and that reflects very nicely in the story.

This is a charming story with sadness, hope, and changes. The Summer Before Boys is going to please the tween set even if they perhaps will not always connect with the deeper emotions that Julia is bringing to the surface. Nonetheless, I enjoyed this story, somewhat bittersweet and melancholy in its portrayal of growing up, but with the wonders of childhood still evident on the pages.(less)

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May 06, 2011 Laura Ashlee rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011, juvenile-middle-grade

I wasn't totally sure what to expect from this when I started it. I didn't expect it to be so much about Julia's mother and how she dealt with that. I liked that about it though. It was so nice to see the difference between the Julia that plays make believe with her best friend and the Julia that has so many thoughts and feelings about the war and her mother being in it.

Baskin's voice in this book was perfect. There was a true feeling of a girl who is starting to grow up, but hasn't quite made i...more

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May 07, 2011 L_manning rated it 5 of 5 stars

The Summer Before Boys was a couple stories in one. The first deals with the that time in life where we begin to lose our youth and become interested in things like boys. The other story is about the sacrifices that member of our Armed Forces and their families make during times of war and deployments. Both stories are intertwined in a simple and beautiful manner.

Julia and Eliza are best friends and relatives. They love to read and pretend. They read the classics- Little Women and Little House O...more The Summer Before Boys was a couple stories in one. The first deals with the that time in life where we begin to lose our youth and become interested in things like boys. The other story is about the sacrifices that member of our Armed Forces and their families make during times of war and deployments. Both stories are intertwined in a simple and beautiful manner.

Julia and Eliza are best friends and relatives. They love to read and pretend. They read the classics- Little Women and Little House On the Prairie. There is magic all around them as they imagine the lives of these characters and create there own. However, at 12 years old, things are beginning to change for Julia at least. Sometimes she can't see the same things Eliza sees. Julia's also begun to notice boys. One boy in particular. This change threatens to tear Julia and Eliza apart.

The other part of the story is the part that touched me the most. Julia's mom is serving as a nurse in Iraq. The current summer near the end of her deployment is mixed in with flashbacks to the past year, when Julia and another student were sent to special counciling for students with deployed parents. The worry and longing for her mother's safe return is so strong. Nora Raleigh Baskin did a particularly good job in describing what it's like to have a parent serving in the military far away from home. It was a wonderful reminder of what the families of our men and women in uniform must go through not only while their loved ones are away, but also how different things can be when they come back.

I found this book to be so moving and real. I understood these girls. I was always reading the same books as they did. I could see myself in their shoes. I also appreciated the harsh realities of war and having a mom so far away. Julia went through so many emotions while her mom was gone, and I felt them right along with her. I think everyone should read this to really understand what kind of things the families of our service members can go through. The worry of not knowing if your loved one is safe. The agony of missing a simple phone call because you never know when you may get another. I ended the book with a heart for of thankfulness for both our service men and women and their families. This was such a good book, and I hope everyone will read it.

Galley provided by publisher for review.(less)

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Apr 10, 2011 Shanyn (Chick Loves Lit) rated it 4 of 5 stars

The thing that I liked most about The Summer Before Boys is that it deals with a mother that is shipped away for the military, and this is not a topic I have read about before (nor one that I have seen covered by many books at all). It is a very fitting story with the amount of conflict that exists in our world today, and reading this made me wonder why there weren't more books that dealt with this topic in particular.

Along with Julia's mother being gone due to the National Guard, she is also de...more

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May 07, 2011 Claudette rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary-or-realistic-fiction, arc-galley, young-adult, read-in-2011

Rrating Clarification: 2.5

The Summer Before Boys is a pretty short and very sweet story about a normal girl, Julia, who's just beginning her early years as a teenager and whose mother is serving in the National Guard, away from home, in Iraq, a country were soldiers (and civilians too) die too easily for Julia's liking.

Julia has to go live at her sister's house for the whole summer because of her parents' jobs, but she certainly won't complain. With her niece (although she calls her cousin) Eliz...more

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May 17, 2012 Cinnamon rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: chick-lit, children-s, coming-of-age, contemporary, family-situations, first-kiss, friendship, girl-self-perception, mothers, relationships, young-adult, summertime, military-families

Julia and Eliza are best friends. They have been together their whole lives, have done everything together. Eliza has helped Julia deal with her mother's deployment to Iraq. This summer, Julia is staying with Eliza's family near the resort where Eliza's father works. They will have the run of the place and Eliza can't wait to play make-believe like they always have. She is ready to build on their doll world and imagine that they are Indian captives struggling to find their real families. But, wh...more

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May 18, 2011 Maria rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: galley-grab, middle-grades, read-in-2011

The Summer Before Boys is a coming of age story set against the backdrop of the war in Iraq. Julia's mom has been in Iraq for the past nine and a half months. Because of this and her father's job, Julia is spending the summer with her sister, brother-in-law, and niece, Eliza. Julia and Eliza are the same age and best friends - inseparable. They spend most of their time at the resort where Eliza's father works wandering the hiking trails, trying to sneak into tea, playing Lester and Lynette, and...more The Summer Before Boys is a coming of age story set against the backdrop of the war in Iraq. Julia's mom has been in Iraq for the past nine and a half months. Because of this and her father's job, Julia is spending the summer with her sister, brother-in-law, and niece, Eliza. Julia and Eliza are the same age and best friends - inseparable. They spend most of their time at the resort where Eliza's father works wandering the hiking trails, trying to sneak into tea, playing Lester and Lynette, and getting ice cream at the gift shop. At least they do until Julia starts to notice Michael. What happens to a friendship when one person is ready to grow up, but the other isn't?

The Summer Before Boys is a very timely book; a good number of people are dealing with the same anxieties and fears associated with having a family member deployed to Iraq as Julia. She's worried that her mother's deployment will be extended, that something will happen to her or that she'll come back different. To help her deal with this, Julia has collected facts about women in war, which are included through out the book. I found these pieces of information interesting and thought that they added another layer to the story that allowed the reader to get to know Julia.

There is a back and forth, almost like you can see Julia's thought process, type of narration. Julia is telling about the current summer, but then mentions something that happened the year before in school or about the days leading up to her mother leaving. Describing it makes it seem weird, but it really worked in the framework of the story because you get to see the different pieces that lead to the summer and what happens between Julia and Eliza.

Throughout the book, Ms. Baskin does a great job balancing the two major arcs in the story and it's interesting how they come together. The way she handles that awkward age when some kids are ready to grow up and others are happy still living in their own make believe world is what made The Summer Before Boys a great read for me. But then again, I've lived through that time in my own life and can remember it with mostly fond memories. I'm wondering if girls that are the same age as Julia and Eliza will be able to relate to them. I'm hoping they can and if they do, they will be rewarded with a wonderful read.

I can see The Summer Before Boys being a great book for readers who like more quiet or introspective books.(less)

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Sep 23, 2012 Kristi rated it 3 of 5 stars

With all my heart, I wanted to give this book 5 stars. I'm not particularly sure why I didn't fall completely in love with this story, but I didn't. I liked it a a lot, but I didn't love it.

One thing I did like and hate, was the fact that this was written from the perspective of the boy-crazy and faster maturing girl. Usually these kinds of stories are written from the girl who is lagging behind.

Yet, I think this is also why I didn't fall completely in love with it-- I was always the friend of...more

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Oct 22, 2011 Becky rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: girls, mother-daughter, newbery-candidate-2012, realistic-fiction

Nora Baskin beautifully handles that tender time in a girl's life when she is still playing with dolls but begins to be attracted to boys. Julia and Eliza's close relationship is realistically drawn. The subplot involving Julia and Peter's parents serving in Iraq sets this novel in time and provides a view of the stress that this creates in their families. I was disappointed to see a grammatical mistake on p. 54 where the word lay is mistakenly used rather than lie. It's a common mistake but I h...more

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May 22, 2011 Samantha rated it 4 of 5 stars

Realistic fiction set in 2004. Fast read, short chapters and the reader spends a lot of time in Julia's (the main character) head. Julia has an interesting family dynamic: she calls her sister her Aunt and her niece (and best friend) her cousin, and her mother is in Iraq for most of the story. The story is pretty simple Julia is spending summer with her sister, brother-in-law and niece at the old-fashioned resort they live at while Julia's father puts in a lot of overtime at work throughout the...more

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May 25, 2011 Julie Smith (Knitting and Sundries) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: galley, galley-grab, reviewed

This review first appeared on my blog: http://www.knittingandsundries.com/20...

It is the summer of 2004, and Julia is staying with her Aunt Louisa (who is really her sister, 22 years older than Julia). Her father was laid off from IBM and is now manager of a gas station and has to work a lot, and her mother, who joined the National Guard, was deployed 9 1/2 months ago. She and her niece Eliza (who she calls her cousin, since they're both 12) are best friends, with their own imaginary games, incl...more

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May 13, 2011 Savannah (Books With Bite) rated it 4 of 5 stars

I thought this was a great coming age story with lots of life lessons in it. Boys, school, family. Everything that you grow up with and come to learn. What I like most about this book was how it talk about the war and how it effected her.

Julia grows up so fast and so much just over the summer. Her mother has been over seas for the war and Julia is alone with her father which forces her to do things on her own. Julia is a very smart, bright girl. And even thought she made mistakes, I loved how r...more

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Jun 16, 2011 Danielle Larca rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: juvenile

Julia is spending the summer with her best friend Eliza because her mother is deployed in Iraq and her father has to work. In summers past, Julia has loved being with Eliza, playing make-believe and roaming the trails around Mohawk Mountain Lodge. But this summer is different. This summer the magic isn't made in the games Julia and Eliza play, but in the interactions Julia has with Michael, the first boy she's ever wanted to kiss. And overshadowing everything is the nawing worry about her mom. W...more

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Oct 16, 2012 Bridget rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really liked this book because it was in my subject for reading, and it made we want to turn the page to look ahead and see what was next. If i had to use two words to describe this book I would say "Very Entertaining". I liked this book also because it wasn't slow or it didn't carry on forever, it only took me about 3 hours to read this whole book, and it is a pretty good size. That's how good it was. The only parts I didn't like about the book was when the narrator talked about the details a...more

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Sep 05, 2011 Kat Goldin rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Summer Before Boys
Tis book is a good and risk free coming of age book that has a theme of friendship, war, growing up, first crushes and sorrow. During the summer our lead protagonist sends her time with her friend and cousin in a quant rural town. They run free and have fun as well as stumble across a new boy in town that becomes the center of some tension. This book is great since the Julia has to deal with worrying about her mother who is deployed to aid in the war efforts in Iraq. Julia’...more

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Oct 28, 2012 Mrs. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: realistic-fiction, 2012-2013

The Summer Before Boys is a book about two best friends, Eliza and Julia. Julia's mother has been deployed and words as a nurse in Iraq. The book describes the relationships Julia has: the relationship she shares with Eliza as her best friend, the relationship she misses with her mother, and her new obsession with Michael. I like this book because so many of us can relate to it, whether we have ever had a crush, a best friend who knows everything about you, or a family member that has been gone...more

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May 13, 2011 Deanna rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011, juvenile-fiction

Julia is spending the summer before seventh grade living at her (much) older sister's house because her mother, a nurse in the National Guard, has been sent to serve in Iraq. Lucky for Julia, her sister has a daughter, Eliza, who is just her age and also her very best friend. Julia is walking the line between being a girl and playing pretend while dipping a tentative toe into the waters of boys and first kisses. Baskin perfectly captures the tween dilemma of wanting to growing up yet still wanti...more

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Oct 17, 2011 Donna rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: tweens

It is rare to find a book that is so solidly representative of the shift from child to tween. In this story, you can almost sense the hormonal change that shifts one girl away from her best friend and into the myopic realm of worrying only about what boys may think of her. There are elements that are not as strong, such as the subplot about her mother on military duty in Iraq. Yet, this book does such of good job of putting the reader in the bewildering shift away from childhood, that those othe...more

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About Nora Raleigh Baskin

Truth- I started writing seriously in 5th grade. I began with poetry. All I remember about my first poem, was that it had something to do with reincarnation. It was short but startlingly profound (so I thought). But what I remember most was my teacher’s reaction. She loved it. My life was changed. I had discovered the power of words.

By 6th grade I was writing short stories and keeping journals. I...more

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