24. The Summer I Saved the World in 65 Days - Michele Weber Hurwitz

2014, Wendy Lamb Books: Random House

266 pgs.

Written for middle grades/YA

Finished 5/6/2014

Contemporary Realistic Fiction

Goodreads Rating: 4.26

My Rating: 4-Liked it a lot, great story

TPPL

Setting: contemporary anytown, USA

1^st sentence/s:  "It starts with Mrs. Chung.  And flowers.  Marigolds."

My comments:  The summer after 8th grade. I liked this book very much, with only one drawback.  The protagonist, Nina, was a sweetheart - much like many of the girls of that age I've had the pleasure to know.  Her closest friends, Eli and Jorie, live in her cul de sac.  But she has no other friends?  This is impossible to wrap my mind around, which kept me outside the book a little, wondering why the author decided to do this..... Other than that, I enjoyed the story very, very much.

Becky's review from Becky's Book Reviews

Goodreads Review:  It's summertime, and thirteen-year-old Nina Ross is feeling kind of lost. Her beloved grandma died last year; her parents work all the time; her brother's busy; and her best friend is into clothes, makeup, and boys. While Nina doesn't know what "her thing" is yet, it's definitely not shopping and makeup. And it's not boys, either. Though . . . has Eli, the boy next door, always been so cute?
             This summer, Nina decides to change things. She hatches a plan. There are sixty-five days of summer. Every day, she'll anonymously do one small but remarkable good thing for someone in her neighborhood, and find out: does doing good actually make a difference? Along the way, she discovers that her neighborhood, and her family, are full of surprises and secrets.
             In this bighearted, sweetly romantic novel, things may not turn out exactly as Nina expects. They might be better.