The Summer I Turned Pretty — Jenny Han • 12+

The Summer I Turned Pretty — Book Summary

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The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han. Ages 12+.

⚠ Contains spoilers.

Plot Summary

The Summer I Turned Pretty (2009) is the first book in a trilogy by Jenny Han. It is told in the first person by Isabel 'Belly' Conklin, who has spent every summer of her life at a beach house with her mother's best friend, Susannah Fisher, and Susannah's two sons: Conrad and Jeremiah.

Belly has been in love with Conrad, the older brother, for as long as she can remember. This summer feels different — she is sixteen, and both brothers seem to see her differently. The novel alternates between the present summer and flashbacks to earlier summers. Beneath the romance, a more serious thread develops: Susannah is seriously ill, and the idyllic summer world is shadowed by the knowledge that things are about to change forever.

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