Tale of Two Summers

by Brian Sloan

Book Overview

08:06 p.m. Saturday 07.29.06 You are in L-O-V-E. Notice how I have no hesitation spelling it. At all. Reason? That was just the wildest entry you've posted Ever....You are so seeing the world through... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0689874391
• ISBN13: 9780689874390
• Release Date: June 2006
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
• Length: 241 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.2" x 8.5"
• Age Range: 12 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 7 and higher

Customer Reviews

The ups and downs of friendship

I wish that a novel like this had been around when I was in high school. Author/director/screenwriter Brian Sloan (WTC View, I Think I Do) writes a satisfyingly dense story of a summer in the lives of two bets friends: gay (and newly out) Hal, and Chuck, the straight "wonderboy." I'm not usually one for books written entirely in emails, letters, diary entries etc. but it works in this book; the heroes are corresponding via a blog, they get more detailed when explaining what's going on in their lives. The novel is also notable because it explores the friendship between a gay teen and his straight friend. This is such a rare phenomena to depict, it makes the book feel ex. I did relate in many ways as this book reinded me so much of a one of my most important friendships, right down to Hal's neediness. Sloan really gets it. I think Hal may have been just slightly better developed a character than Chuck, but that may just be because part of me was more interested in his tale. This an excellent, frank and very readable novel. I read it in two days because I kept wanting to see what happened next. The best thing is that nothing works out the way I thought it would. Despite this being targeted for the Young Adult age bracket, I'd recommend this for us "grown-ups" as well. When a book's this good, everybody should take a chance and read it.

Fresh and Easy to Believe

OK, I've taught high school for 37 years, and this book captures the dramatics, hyperbole, stunts, depression, hope, and anxiety of being a teen. Mr. Sloan has demonstrated a profound knack for capturing the cadance of adolescent speech, the multiplicity of their thought patterns, and their overall obsessions with becoming who they want to be. Coupled with good humor and insight, this novel reads just like a blog, and most assuredly should be read in that manner. Kudos to this book, and its honest look at contemporary kids; their lives, loves, disappointments, and most significantly, maturation.

Gay/straight best friends in excellent coming-of-age story by talented author

Chuck and Hal are two 15 year olds, best friends since first grade, who are separated for six weeks for the first time this summer, as Chuck attends a live-in drama workshop at a university. They decide to keep in touch via a web blog, which Chuck titled "Tale of Two Summers", and the book is made up entirely of their daily postings to each other for the six week session. Most of their early postings are about their missing each other, and recollections of past New Years when Hal tearfully came out as gay to his straight best friend. Their loneliness quickly gives way to possibilities for love, as Hal meets a flirtatious, bohemian French exchange student, Henri, right about the same time that Chuck becomes interested in Ghaliyah. an beautiful and exotic girl whose character plays against his in the camp's play. Of course, first loves rarely go smoothly, and the friends encourange and help each other through considerable anguish and miscues through their writings on the blog. A delightful, well-written coming-of-age story with a positive message about relationships of all kinds, which I give extra points for providing excellent role models for gay/straight best friends. Deals with sexual situations, but appropriate for all ages from junior high and up.