All Summer Long

Reminds me if this summer, much like the main character, I kind of just stayed home and did nothing

All Summer Long by Hope Larson is about thirteen-year-old Bina who feels adrift when her best friend, Austin, leaves for soccer camp. He and she have a history of rating their summer fun by a long list of silly and somewhat arbitrary things. This year, though, she's by herself. http://pussreboots.com/blog/2019/comm...

Reminds me if this summer, much like the main character, I kind of just stayed home and did nothing

Ah, the summer between grade 7 and grade 8. It's a biggie. You turn thirteen and suddenly friendships that were once built on shared childhood interests, in Bina's case compiling the annual Summer Fun Index including number of cats petted, video games mastered, times gone swimming, and inches grown, need to be renegotiated. Her best friend and next door neighbor Austin tells her that he has been accepted to an elite soccer camp and won't be around most of the vacation and, hey, stop commenting on how short he is. What the heck? Is Austin seriously telling her that the index isn't fun anymore and that it's not cool to tease each other like normal? Assumptions about what is fun now that they are going to be the big kids in middle school and how to spend those long summer days change overnight. And the changes are painfully confusing for Bina, because for the first summer of her life, she is on her own and needs to discover her own interests away from Austin, and school, and her parents managing her time. Her parents work, her older brothers are adulting, one leading wilderness treks and the other adopting a baby with his husband. So week by week, as she rattles around her empty house, she deals with her thoughts about Austin not texting her from camp and feeling lonely in general by binging a favorite show, avoiding required reading of the The Odyssey, playing her guitar, and facing acute boredom. She finds herself hanging out with Austin's older sister who is also into the edgy music Bina likes. She finds herself babysitting and learns the hard way that being responsible takes effort and attention. She finds out her mom really is/was cool and has the leather jacket to prove it. She finds a new favorite band and hits a club to hear them play before they hit the big time managing to get some solid life advice from the lead singer, one musician to another. All of a sudden, Bina is having a summer to remember, with plans for eighth grade that are going to rock. Hand this to fans of Victoria Jamieson's Roller Girl for another summer of friendship and personal discovery in middle school. Students who need a high-five for following their dreams and interests will love these stories.

Good middle grade GN about growing up growing apart and together, trying on identities and working out who you are in relation to friends and people around you. Liked the fact that there was a strong female protagonist getting good advice from another girl. Like the flakiness and awkwardness of teen friendships depicted with the need to be cooler than the next person depending on who was around. ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

An awesome graphic novel about staying friends with someone despite your differences and figuring out who you are. There was a lot of subtle diversity, which I loved! Fans of Raina Telgemeier would enjoy this graphic novel!

With the way this ended I am ready for a follow up.

it was cute love the three color black white and Orange art and was a fast read for me

All Summer Long is a classic story of one girl’s summer. Bina is best friends with Austin, but he is spending one month of their summer away at soccer camp. When boredom sets in, Bina finds an unlikely friend in Austin’s older sister who it turns out likes a lot of the same music as Bina. Austin comes home from camp, but things just aren’t the same. These two must figure out a way to adjust to their own separate growth, and respect their differences as ways to make their friendship stronger. It was a cute summer story, but ultimately forgettable for me.

This was pretty darn cute.