Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler

June 2009 by Little Brown Books for Young Readers

Hardcover, 290 Pages

Compliments of the Public Library

Anna and Frankie have been best friends since childhood….they have been though it all, most recently the death of Frankie’s brother Matt. Months have passed by and to ease the family grieving, Frankie’s parents decide a trip to California (a usual vacation spot) is just what they all need. Anna is invited to join the family and the girls plan an Absolute Best Summer Ever. The goal: meet 20 guys in 20 days and help Anna shed the clutches of her virginity. Anna has a secret though, one she’s been hiding from Frankie, she doesn’t want to fall in love with another boy because her heart still belongs to Matt. Right before he died they shared a brief romance, she being 15 and he being a high school graduate getting ready to head off to college.

As the girls begin traveling this road to healing- secrets, betrayals and a true test of their friendship will arise. While predictable in spots, Twenty Boy Summer features the aftermath of death, showcasing one girls journey to move on and another’s desperate cry for help who purposely makes terrible decisions to gain the attention of her grief-stricken parents.

Regardless of Twenty Boy Summer's dealing with death issues, the book is really a coming-of-age story and the loss of virginity. Frankie and Anna's vacation (3 weeks that seem like 3 months) is about sneaking out every single night and coming up with the best lies to fool the nonexistent parental units. Frankie’s parents never catch onto the lies the girls are spinning because the sadness of losing their only son pretty much sucked the life out of both of them. So zombie parents = do whatever the hell I want. And that's exactly what our naughty characters do. The girls eventually meet boys they want to hang with and Anna develops true feelings for a guy named Sam, who she ultimately uses to get past Matt. The sneaking out hands the girls plenty of opportunity to party, drink and fool around and in the midst of all this turmoil the girls realize the importance of honesty and the freedom to finally lay Matt to rest......or at least the freedom of letting go of virginity.

Thoughts and "Mom Rant" Time......

Ive only done a few rants on this blog, one being here (for stupidity) and another here for glamorizing teen pregnancy. I will first admit that I only read Twenty Boy Summer due to the whole book scandal that a certain professor a few months back caused. Of course if a book makes the banned list and parents are in an uproar, I as a parent of a teen want to read it. I thought Ockler presented a realistic story of two teenage girls with all your typical scenarios dealing with loss, depression and parents who are to busy to care. While I understand that most of the teens in the novel made stupid decisions because:

A. They Had Parents who didn't give a crap and were desperate for attention
B. Were out of control lacking structure
C. Were suffering and dealing with the death of a loved one

Besides those complicated issues that worked for this novel, the issue I had with Twenty Boy Summer were the thoughts on virginity. Ockler's characters and the overall feel of the book was a message that said.....

The first time you have sex is not a big deal, its more or so a right of passage, just a simple act girls need to get through so they can move on to a more pleasurable sex life....

**cough** and gag and cry for these young girls who think so little of themselves... 16 year olds should be worrying about school, hobbies and getting into college, not how they can stimulate their sex life!! Anne's whole attitude about sex was messed up, the idea that her first time wouldn't be special and that it was ok to have sex with a guy she only knew for two lousy weeks, would never see again and be able to walk away unchanged or unaffected was a bunch of garbage. With a main audience of 13-16 year old girls, I thought this type of  message coming from an adult writer was irresponsible. I know sex in YA is becoming more acceptable, but I think it should be handled with care, especially when presented to young readers.

Also I had concerns about the duplicity of the message that the author sent by dressing her character Frankie in a way to sexually arouse the men around her, yet at the same time attacking the male character for responding sexually. A typical feminist message to young girls, that their only source of true power is to manipulate their sexuality, but then complain about the objectification of young women by men. A young woman should know that her power, success and self-worth does not come from shaking her ass, it comes from education, character, determination and confidence. I can defiantly see why some parents and teachers would be concerned about the content in this novel. Its message reinforces such a negative outlook on teenage sex encouraging young girls to just get it over with.

Rating

While I would not recommend this novel to young readers, Twenty Boy Summer is suitable to teen readers 10th grade and up. Contains: Underage drinking, lying, sneaking out, sexuality including sexual acts, death, grief, stress and neglectful parents

2/5- YA-Contemporary