Books by Jenny Han

Do you remember how old you were when the boys in your life stopped being your friends and became potential boyfriends?  It’s easy to fall in love with the boy next door, the boy who has been there your whole life and now suddenly you are looking at them different and in Jenny Han’s YA novels we get to experience this feeling through Shug and Belly.

Han’s first book shug (a 2009 Rebecca Caudill nominee) tells the story of twelve year old Annemarie (Shug) who doesn’t think much of herself.  Her sister is the beautiful one, her mom is glamorous and Shug believes she is too tall and too freckled for anyone to pay attention to her.  It doesn’t stop her from falling in love with her best friend Mark and wanting him to look at her different.  At a time when all the girls are starting to couple off, Shug feels left out while dealing with problems at home and a best friend who seems to be pulling away from her.

Belly lives for the summer and in the first book in Han’s Summer Trilogy is the summer i turned pretty, she is back to spend her summer with the boys who she always thought of as her brothers until everything starts to change.  After dealing with love, heartache and loss, the characters return in the sequel it’s not summer without you to face a summer without each other.  The final book in the trilogy, we’ll always have summer, will be out next summer to follow Belly and her boys into adulthood.

If you enjoy Han’s books, check out titles from Sarah Dessen, Catherine Murdock, and Rachel Vail.  ~ Denise

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