That Summer (2004) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Summary edit see section history

Characters edit see section history

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• Haven McPhail: Main character and the narrator os the story. She is very tall and going through difficult times because of her parents divorce and her father's subsequent remarriage. She is 15 years old, lanky and nearly 6 feet tall. Her summer is revolving around 2 weddings those of her dad and the weather girl Lorna Queen adn her sister Ashley adn boring Lewis.
• Ashley McPhail/ Warsher: Haven's sister who is getting married
• Sumner Lee: Ashley's old boyfriend that had agood relationship wit Haven
• Lorna "The Weatherpet" Queen: Haven and Ashley's new stepmom, weather woman on Channel 5, Haven's mom calls her the Weather Pet. She is a southern belle who is only 5 years older than Haven's sister Ashley and the weather girl. She is described as very pretty and perky.
• Mac McPhail: Haven and Ashley's dad, A newscaster who gets married to Lorna after he leaves his wife.Cheated on his wife with a younger woman - Lorna Queen - who was also the weather girl on the local news station. He is the sports broadcaster on the same channel.
• Mom: Haven and Ashley's mom who is having a hard time with the divorce so spends time gardening
• Casey Melvin: Haven's best friend, who became "fast" at summer camp.
• Lewis Warsher: The man whom Haven's sister, Ashley, is marrying. The quiet, truthful, and bland type of person.
• Lydia Catrell: Best friend of Ashley's mom who is a divorcee who likes to have fun.Haven's neighbor. Is a widow and befriended Haven's mom. Has highlighted hair, goes out every Thursday and wants Haven's mom to go to Europe with her.
• Mrs. Melvin: Casey's mother
• Rick: Casey's boyfriend whom she met at 4H camp
• Gwendolyn Rogers: A Lakeview model.
• Bert Isker: Manager of Little Feet (where Haven works) Is very old and sometimes scary.

Quotes edit see section history

• “Everything looks different when you're older, not staring up at the world but down upon it.”

• “Sometimes there isn't a good guy and a bad guy. Sometimes even the ones you want to believe turn out to be liars.”

• “Some things don't have to be said. Some things, between sisters, are just, understood.”

  Haven

• “You can't love anyone that way more than once in a lifetime. It's too hard and it hurts too much when it ends. The first boy is always the hardest to get over, Haven. It's just the way the world works.”

  Ashley

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• You can’t love anyone that way more than once in a lifetime. It’s too hard and it hurts too much when it ends. The first boy is always the hardest to get over, Haven. It’s just the way the world works.”

  Highlighted by 93 Kindle customers

• Everything looks different when you’re older, not staring up at the world but down upon it.

  Highlighted by 92 Kindle customers

• Sometimes there isn’t a good guy and a bad guy. Sometimes even the ones you want to believe turn out to be liars.”

  Highlighted by 78 Kindle customers

• Everyone can reach back to one summer and lay a finger to it, finding the exact point when everything changed. That summer was mine.

  Highlighted by 63 Kindle customers

• Some things you don’t have to tell. Some things, between sisters, are understood.

  Highlighted by 58 Kindle customers

• Even the people you think are super-squeaky-clean normal have something about them that’s not right.”

  Highlighted by 58 Kindle customers

• 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.

  Highlighted by 53 Kindle customers

• There was only what stretched out ahead, years full of new summers and promise, with all the time in the world left to start again. My sister, who never understood most of the things I wanted her to, might have been able to understand what had happened to me in this summer of weddings and beginnings. And she was right. The first boy was always the hardest.

  Highlighted by 36 Kindle customers

• Something about what we had in common: a neighborhood, a summer, a revelation about a belief once considered sacred.

  Highlighted by 34 Kindle customers

• I was all bony elbows and acute angles, like a jigsaw puzzle piece that can only go in the middle, waiting for the others to fit around it to make it whole.

  Highlighted by 27 Kindle customers

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Morgan
• Quik Stop
• Europe
• Lakeview Mall
• Pennsylvania
• Virginia Beach
• Little Feet
• Dillard

First Sentence edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

List the series to which this book belongs.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Sarah Dessen (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Notes for Parents edit see section history

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Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Teens › Authors, A-Z › ( D ) › Dessen, Sarah
• Books › Teens › Literature & Fiction › Love & Romance

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• Sarah Dessen

Movie Connections edit see section history

• How to Deal (IMDb): 2003

Books Influenced by This Book edit see section history