Remember when you were a kid, and school was ending, and you had to say goodbye to your best friend(s) for the summer? I remember that feeling vividly, as I always dreaded it - three months of not seeing people you normally spend every minute with. Brian Sloan's "Tale Of Two Summers" captures that experience in a novel. Chuck and Hal have been best friends for ten years. Chuck is straight, Hal is gay. Chuck goes for a Summer Musical Theater class, Hal stays and goes to Driver's Ed. They agree to blog about their days and nights to keep in touch with each other and we see how their summers progress. I liked the blog idea initially but have to admit it was cumbersome in the beginning, and I probably just needed getting used to it. It was quite interesting to see how their experiences differed and were similar. Of course, they have respective love interests. At times their actions were exasperating (Hal, for example, spends the first third of the book wondering if the guy he fancies is gay, and I wanted to scream, JUST ASK!) but I had to remind myself that these are sixteen year old kids and their emotional IQs aren't as formed. I thought give these kids a little more life experience (like the summer they just had) and they would turn out just fine. I love the little touches - how Chuck is doing "Merrily We Roll Along" as the musical of the summer, and the show gave both of them insights on their friendship. And I am just thinking, what a wonderful YA book, I wish I had this to read when I was a teenager. This is a great book to read at any age.
BC-30
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