Review of Summer Before Boys by Nora Raleigh Baskin

This is an charming book with a nostaligic feel to it. It transports you back to those hot and endless summer days when your knees were scraped and your chin and neck, sticky with ice cream. Julia is spending the summer with her her best friend/niece Eliza at the Mohawk Mountain Lodge where her brother-in-law is a caretaker. Julia's mother is in the National Guard and and serving in Iraq and her father often works late.

Until this summer, Julia has loved her time with Eliza at the Lodge. But something has changed. There's a boy at the lodge whom Julia may like while Eliza still wants to play the imaginery games of their childhood.

I enjoyed this read. I especially liked how Julie's emotions concerning her mother's deployment are handled with sensitivity and care.

I would give it 4 stars on a scale of 5.