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Summer of Sarah Dessen

Summer Of Sarah Dessen : Dreamland

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  • Release Date : September 1 2000
  • Publisher : Viking Children’s/Penguin
  • Genre : Contemporary
  • Pages : 256

Synopsis: Ever since she started going out with Rogerson Biscoe, Caitlin seems to have fallen into a semiconscious dreamland where nothing is quite real. Rogerson is different from anyone Caitlin has ever known. He’s magnetic. He’s compelling. He’s dangerous. Being with him makes Caitlin forget about everything else-her missing sister, her withdrawn mother, her lackluster life. But what happens when being with Rogerson becomes a larger problem than being without him.

Cassandra “Cass” O’Koren was the perfect high school student; she was homecoming queen, a star soccer player and Yale bound in the fall. That is until she decides to runawway to New York City with her boyfriend; leaving her friends and family behind.

Dreamland isn’t Cass’ story though; It is the story of her younger sister Caitlin.

After Cass’s hasty departure, her little sister Caitlin is  left to pick up the pieces. Her attempts at finding life after Cass come tumbling down the night she meet Rogerson Biscoe. He’s a dark brooding drug-dealer whose life is constantly in motion and Caitlin wants nothing more than to be in motion with him. Caitlin entwines her life in his moving  farther away from the person everyone wants her to be.

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Summer of Sarah Dessen : Someone Like You

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“There are some things in this world you rely on, like a sure bet. And when they let you down, shifting from where you’ve carefully placed them, it shakes your faith, right where you stand.”

                                                                      – Sarah Dessen, Someone Like You

Synopsis: When Scarlett learns that her boyfriend has been killed in a motorcycle accident, and that she’s carrying his baby, she’s devastated. For the first time ever, Scarlett really needs Halley. Their friendship may bend under the weight, but it’ll never break–because a true friendship is a promise you keep forever. 

Someone Like You is Dessen’s sophomore novel after That Summer. From the accounts of Dessen herself and many of her fans, this is one of her most popular books. It delves into “tough stuff”,  is a frank portrayal and discussion of abortion , (arguably) emotionally abusive relationships, teen sex and teen pregnancy long before Teen Mom made it “cool”.

Halley and her best friend, Scarlett’s, lives are changed the summer after Scarlett’s boyfriend dies in a motorcycle accident. Michael’s death sets of a chain of events that bond Scarlett and Halley stronger than ever; while a new boyfriend encourages Halley’s independence and break from her usually tight knit family.

Much like That Summer, Someone Like You also deals with missed perceptions. Halley thinks she knows how Elizabeth Gunderson the popular cheerleader is, she thinks she know what she is getting into with Macon Faulkner, even more so she thinks she knows who her mother is.


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Summer of Sarah Dessen : That Summer

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Today kicks off  day 1 of the Summer of Sarah Dessen at Books and Sensibility. Join us every Wednesday as we make our way through Sarah Dessen’s complete collection of novels !

 “It’s funny how one summer can change everything. It must be something about the heat and the smell of chlorine, fresh-cut grass and honeysuckle, asphalt sizzling after late-day thunderstorms, the steam rising while everything drips around it. Something about long, lazy days and whirring air conditioners and bright plastic flip-flops from the drugstore thwacking down the street. Something about fall being so close, another year, another Christmas, another beginning. So much in one summer, stirring up like the storms that crest at the end of each day, blowing out all the heat and dirt to leave everything gasping and cool. Everyone can reach back to one summer and lay a finger to it, finding the exact point when everything changed. That summer was mine.”                                                                                  – That Summer, Sarah Dessen

Synopsis :For Haven, life is changing too quickly. She’s nearly six feet tall, her father is getting remarried, and her sister—the always perfect Ashley—is planning a wedding of her own. Haven wishes things could just go back to the way they were. Then an old boyfriend of Ashley’s reenters the picture, and through him, Haven sees the past for what it really was, and comes to grips with the future.

This summer, Haven’s father remarries to a younger woman, this summer, Haven’s sister marries and will leave, this summer Sumner comes back into her life. Not matter how much Haven wants it to be, this summer is not like that summer. When everything was perfect.

That Summer is a quintessential coming of age story, through Haven’s narration readers become a fly on the wall in  Lakeview and all of it’s small town happenings. Everything from Haven’s father’s wedding to a local teen celebrity’s mental break down work together as a backdrop to Haven’s struggle with trying to find hope in an illusion. 

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Summer of Sarah Dessen : Intro

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Summer 2012 has officially started !

 

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