The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

I don’t usually read YA Romance but I do have a teenage daughter and am always looking for ways to connect with her. Since my kid is an avid reader (shocker?!), books are a reliable source of conversation for us. While I didn’t intend this read to make it into the Farewell Library collection, it does for one major reason: The Summer I Turned Pretty is an excellent ice-breaker for adults-teens to dive into what grief feels like for teenagers, particularly when they have a sick parent or loved one.

The Summer I Turned Pretty will not blow your mind with its literary technique or elegant language. But it does draw you in to a timeless story full of nostalgia, romance and awkward teen angst. And most importantly, we see a narrator, Belly, witness her mother’s best friend’s prolonged struggle with cancer and the impact her disease has on her teenaged sons.

There were quite a few conversation starters for us in this sweet novel, my favorite is this question one teenager poses to the group of four: “Would you rather live one perfect day over and over or live your life with no perfect days but just decent ones?”. Such a tender way to speak to your teen about how they value life and where they derive its meaning.

If you are a parent who wants to unravel a dialogue about love, grief, and friendships with your teen, try reading this one together. If you love a teen who has a parent facing cancer, this is also a beautiful book to start to understand the grief that places on kids as they are finding themselves in the world. If you just love an easy read that travels you back to your middle school days, get ready to stay up all night with this one. But be warned: it’s the first in a trilogy and it’s now on Netflix too.