That Summer
- 198
- Pages
- about 3.5 h
- Reading time
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Our view
“That Summer”, Sarah Dessen’s first novel, is a light, gently funny coming-of-age story about a teenage girl and her family. It suits younger teenagers best: some adult readers struggle with the narrator’s constant complaints, and others find the characters hard to like. Readers who already love Dessen may enjoy seeing where her work began.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
That Summer is Sarah Dessen's first novel, published in 1996. This novel and Dessen's Someone Like You are the basis for the film How to Deal.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 6.3 across 78 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 35% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Young adult average of 7.8. That is how 7.3 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 7.2 | 5 | 6% |
| Google Books | 7.0 | 9 | 12% |
| Hardcover | 6.2 | 64 | 82% |
Frequently asked
What age is That Summer for?
That Summer sits on the Young adult shelf in the sources we use, which by convention means roughly ages 13 and up. This is a guide from the book’s category, not a publisher’s age rating. It has 198 pages — shorter than 98% of the ranked books in Young adult.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Young adult — with scores between 7.3 and 7.5, closest to this book.
