The Summer of June
by Jamie Sumner
Realistic Fiction
Tween (grades 5-8)
* * * * Stars (Great!)
Summer just started and eleven-year-old June Delancey has shaved her head. She experiences a lot of anxiety and uses hair pulling as one of her coping mechanisms. She figures she’ll have to find some other way to cope if she doesn’t have any hair… That works for about 5 minutes and then she feels BOTH anxious AND hates how she looks. Still, she vows that she’s going to change! Therapy, medication, and other techniques are some other ways June is exploring to deal with her anxiety, but there are still lots of things that trigger her. Over the summer, though, she makes some new friends, learns how caring for something (a garden!) can improve her life, and meddles in her mother’s love life. A realistic portrayal of how anxiety might affect an individual, with quirky characters and plenty of humor (as well as suspenseful moments).
Reviewed by YA Librarian
