don’t stop now

You know how sometimes a song or a particular book reminds you of a day, or a place, or a season? I’ll forever associate Julie Halpern’s latest novel Don’t Stop Now with summertime, roadtrips without air conditioning, and intense heat. It’ll be a reminder of those shimmering waves of hot air that seem to billow out of the asphalt along the horizon line, of the windows down and the music too loud (so you can hear it over the rush of the wind), and of the inevitable orange snacks you pick up at an anonymous corner store.

On the first day of Lillian’s summer-before-college, she gets a message on her cell from her sort-of friend, Penny. Not only has Penny faked her own kidnapping, but Lil is the only one who figures it out. She knows that Penny’s home life has been rough, and that her boyfriend may be abusive. Soon, Penny’s family, the local police, and even the FBI are grilling Lil, and she decides to head out to Oregon, where Penny has mentioned an acquaintance. And who better to road-trip across the country with than Lil’s BFF, Josh. But here’s the thing: Lil loves Josh. And Josh doesn’t want to “ruin” their amazing friendship.

Josh has a car and his dad’s credit card. Lil has her cellphone and a hunch about where Penny is hiding. There’s something else she needs to find: Are she and Josh meant to be together?

Julie Halpern has a way with characters (and, of course, a way with words) that puts her up at the top of my list when I’m recommending contemporary YA lit. Her stories feature realistic teens, situations, and friendships – the things that broke your heart, changed your life, and formed the foundation of who you decided to grow up to be. It’s no surprise, then, that her latest novel is a winner.

With her mother’s benediction, Lillian, or ‘Lil’, has given herself the summer before college (where Sarah Dessen heroines live forever) to savor being free of responsibilities, adulthood and the real world. But on the first day of that freedom, her pity-friend (yes, I think that’s a thing) Penny calls and leaves a message that changes everything. Lil and her best friend Josh set out on a cross-country roadtrip to find out what’s really going on. What ensues is not only a fact-finding mission, but an adventure that will change them all – perhaps forever.

Ah Penny, and her fateful phone call. Penny has been a ‘quest’ for Lil – her good deed of the year is an ongoing effort to get Penny to hang out. Problem? Lil sees Penny more as an object than as a person. In fact, the reader sees her this way too, in 2D, an object to be pitied rather than a real character. The ‘mystery’ of where Penny is and what she’s doing is fairly transparent and predictable.

But the real meat of the novel is Lil and Josh’s relationship, and how it develops over the roadtrip. Speaking of roadtrip: I have LIVED THIS STORY. Really. I mean, not with a platonic best friend of the opposite sex, but I have driven cross-country in a car without air conditioning and visited these attractions (okay, most of them) in August. Multiple times, actually. I’m not going to lie, Halpern is spot on. It’s the next best thing to actually experiencing it yourself (and very possibly better than experiencing it yourself, to be quite honest).

Josh and Lil come across as real, authentic characters who have reached a point of comfort in both their skins and with each other. Lil wants to take their friendship to the next level, Josh doesn’t want to change anything – about, well, anything. Over the course of the trip they discover that much more about what they want, who they are, and where it all goes from here.

What to say? This novel felt honest. I liked it. I didn’t necessarily get what I wanted, but I did read something true, and that’s probably better. Don’t Stop Now had its flaws (ahem, Penny!), but it will go down for me as one of the most summery books I have ever read. Can’t wait to pick it up on a frigid winter day and relive the heat and memories!

Recommended for: fans of Sarah Dessen and Jenny Han, those looking for a stellar poolside YA read on a hot day, and anyone who has experienced (or dreamed of) a summer road trip with no rules and no responsibilities.

Fine print: I received an ARC for review from the publisher (and then promptly bought my own hardcover copy!).

what is the american summer?

Elizabeth, whose blog you can check out over at The Occidental Idiot, gave me a challenge a couple of days ago to write an entry answering the question “What is the American summer?”

In purely technical terms, the American summer is the summer season of the Northern hemisphere, which officially starts June 21^st this year, and ends September 22^nd.  But I assume that I’m supposed to give my own, subjective view of what makes an American summer special.  Or something like that.  So I offer that at its most basic level, ‘summer’ is no school, swimming outdoors, outdoor grilling and picnics, big movies, and…extra time spent with friends and family.  Let’s take it point by point, and make it American.

Summer is the 4^th of July, with parades, festivals and fireworks.  I grew up in a town that prohibited fireworks, but in exchange for citizens honoring that, the city put on a huge, 45 minute long fireworks show either at one of the high schools or at a park.  So whoever is in town for the 4^th drives over to the site as the sky darkens, parks the car, and either sits on the hood/roof or sets up a picnic blanket on a patch of grass.  Then you just lie back and wait for the show to start.  It’s never guaranteed to be sunny in early July in the Pacific Northwest, though, so I have many memories of running for cover or not going out at all too. 

Summer is when school lets out.  When instead of a classroom, you head to the pool or to camp or to a vacation Bible school.  When the family takes trips, either to visit family or on educational adventures.  When camping happens during the week, instead of only on weekends.  When bug bites and nettle stings and scratches from blackberry thorns are the price of warm, magical evenings spent running through meadows, supping on clover honey and salmonberry delights.  Summer is unlimited reading time, when it’s okay to check out as many titles as they let you from the public libraries, lie in a cool spot somewhere and enter new and fantastic worlds through books.

Summer is the local outdoor pool open every day of the week, and taking a picnic basket down so that you don’t have to go home between swim practice, tennis practice, playing pickle ball, and free swim.  It’s road-tripping to the seaside with friends and inadvertently getting sunburned and almost-ticketed for having an illegal beverage on a public beach.   It’s scouting for seashells at low tide and making movies or taking silly pictures about life’s simple adventures.  And sometimes it’s about having a miserable time that becomes an indelible memory and a story that will last a lifetime.

Summer is a cookout on a friend’s porch.  It’s eating too many hotdogs and burgers to count, and helping my mother make potato salad that I hate to eat.  It’s fixing iced tea in gargantuan containers so that my family doesn’t drain it all in one sitting.  It’s going to a baseball game and eating cotton candy and cheering for the home team.  It’s caramel apples, French fry bricks, elephant ears and other carnival food.  It’s listening to country music in the car with the windows down, drinking Coke and grinning from ear to ear.

Summer is going to the theater to see big-budget movies and action films.  Anticipating each and every Friday night for new releases, scrambling to buy tickets online lest the showing prove to be sold out.  It’s coming out of a show energized, giddy, excited and entranced by the magic of movie-making.  It’s make believe.  It’s leaving a dark theater with friends on a warm night, and looking up into the stars in the summer sky.

But best of all, summer is sitting out on the porch on a warm evening, talking to loved ones, having a conversation that in the winter months would require the intimacy of a car.  Somehow the night feels familiar, closed-in and yet infinite, with possibilities zipping around and knocking into each other like lightening bugs.  It’s catching fleeting glimpses of bats flying by on their insect-eating mission.  And when it’s at it’s best, summer is hearing the gentle lap of waves on the lakeshore while the moon reflects the depths, and sitting out on the dock, contemplating the enormity of the universe in night sky.