Play It Again, Mallory

Both Can Be True

The Diamond Girls

The Vanderbeekers Make a Wish

New Kid and Class Act: The Box Set

The Lotterys Plus One

The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy

Silent to the Bone

Luke is the perfect boyfriend: handsome, kind, fun. He and Emaline have been together all through high school in Colby, the beach town where they both grew up. But now, in the summer before college, Emaline wonders if perfect is good enough.

Enter Theo, a super-ambitious outsider, a New Yorker assisting on a documentary film about a reclusive local artist. Theo's sophisticated, exciting, and, best of all, he thinks Emaline is much too smart for Colby.

Emaline's mostly-absentee father, too, thinks Emaline should have a bigger life, and he's convinced that an Ivy League education is the only route to realizing her potential. Emaline is attracted to the bright future that Theo and her father promise. But she also clings to the deep roots of her loving mother, stepfather, and sisters. Can she ignore the pull of the happily familiar world of Colby?

Emaline wants the moon and more, but how can she balance where she comes from with where she's going?

Sarah Dessen's devoted fans will welcome this story of romance, yearning, and, finally, empowerment. It could only happen in the summer.

Discover Your Child's Next Read

Play It Again, Mallory

Laurie Friedman, 2013

Both Can Be True

Jules Machias, 2021

The Diamond Girls

Jacqueline Wilson, 2004

The Vanderbeekers Make a Wish

Karina Yan Glaser, 2021

New Kid and Class Act: The Box Set

Jerry Craft, 2021

The Lotterys Plus One

Emma Donoghue, Caroline Hadilaksono, 2017

The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy

Susan Denaker, Jeanne Birdsall, 2005

Silent to the Bone

E.L. Konigsburg, 2000