That Summer discussion

That Summer
Sarah Dessen
Year of Publication: 1996
Number of Pages: 198

This book is fiction, and is for young adult readers. I enjoyed this book, and recommend it to any and all young women. The narrator is a teenager who is becoming a young adult and figuring out how life works. Haven realizes that change is difficult, but it isn’t always bad. She learns how to deal with the change in her life. Change happens all the time in life. CHANGE is the only universal CONSTANT in life. It is how you deal with the changes in your life that makes up your character. loves summer. She enjoys the warmth, spending time with friends, her mother’s flowers, and the aroma in the air that each summer has. Each summer holds happy memories and different milestones for her family. But this summer was different. Her parents got a divorce. Her dad was a news anchor, and he was being unfaithful to his wife, by seeing Lorna Queen (also known as “Weather Pet”). Lorna was a meteorologist for the same news station. Mac McPhail remarried to Lorna. Her sister, Ashley was also getting married that summer. She had many boyfriends, which marked the days, months, and years of the family timeline. For Haven everything around her was changing. She remembers one summer years back when everything was perfect. He dad was still faithful to her mom, and her sister had a boyfriend, Sumner that made Ashley happy, as well as the rest of the family. Just like all of Ashley’s other boyfriends, Sumner was dumped and life for the family suddenly changed. After the breakup everything changed. Mac McPhail became unfaithful, Ashley met Lewis, her future husband, and her mother changed in a way that made everything different.

When everything is chaotic for the family in the middle of the summer, Haven meets Sumner again. He came back to take some time off from school. Haven is elated when she sees him, but everyone else seems to have forgotten him. Sumner and Haven continue to bump into each other, while Haven is going through the most difficult summer of her life. Haven gets fed up with everything that summer was throwing at her. Sumner helps her in a way that makes her forget all the bad things that she is going through. Haven loses her temper at her job, and is fired. Later that day, her father was supposed to spend time with her, before her sister’s wedding, but then her father doesn’t show. Haven runs away from home, and sees Sumner again dancing with the elderly. Sumner asks Haven to dance with him. Haven agrees, and Sumner teaches her how to dance, just like he had taught Ashley how to dance. Sumner is about to take Haven home, but she doesn’t want to go home. It’s the night before her sister’s wedding, and she feels like she needs to be noticed for once, not all about Ashley and her bad attitude. Haven leaves Sumner in the car and she runs into the trees, knowing that, that was the last time that she was going to see Sumner. Her sister finds her and takes her home. Ashley and Haven make up, and Haven accepts the changes in her life. On her sister's big day, Haven wants to apologize for the mess she caused the day before, but she doesn't get the chance to. After Ashley walks down the aisle, she walks to her sister, and hugs her. That hug, makes up for everything that had happened that summer.