Wow, this book was way deeper than I expected given the title, synopsis, and cover. It was a powerful story about friendship, forgiving yourself and others, family, and discovering who you are. Micah has been through a lot in her 12 years and she is now dealing with a new neighborhood and the goal of making new friends before summer ends. She slowly becomes one of the guys, while secretly wanting to be one of the girls. There is humor throughout, with the antics of the guys. Please note that there is bullying and talk of suicide. I would hand this to someone looking for a character-driven middle grade novel that is deep but has humor,

Thank you, NetGalley and the author for a preview of this eBook.


Micah McKinney and the Boys of Summer by Nina Chapman captures perfectly what it feels to be 12 years old where you feel awkward with your own body and when you start seeing the opposite gender in a new light. I finished this book in one sitting because you feel pulled along with Micah as she goes through her first crush, losing a mother and many other issues in her own way. I would 100% recommend this book to all the middle school kids out there.

I am really looking forward to Nina Chapman's next book.

A book that convinces in the general story of a young girl wishing for breasts and a certain level of social experience before starting the next school up, but one that also fails to convince slightly in the detail. The pool staying-underwater champ would know not to just dive in and go at it without oxygenating first, for one. That kind of naive lack of accuracy is not good, whatever the age of the target audience. And I wish books like this didn't completely embarrass the heroine, when we could perfectly get by with her being slightly ditzy, or just plain wrong about what a milksop she is. Here I felt we had a real character for good sections, only for her to have to trip up mid-celebratory dance in the clothes store changing room, or sail through the air and land in a paddling pool when thrust on a skateboard for the first time. Lay it on more thinly, for cryin' out loud – this kind of slapstick does not go anywhere to helping us think this is a real person, and puts us off gunning for her. That said, the boy population of these pages is filled with token shittiness, including the skateboard incident itself, so perhaps I'm barking up the wrong tree labelled 'realism'.

Beyond that, however, a lot also is allowed to work. The mystery of why her previous friendships failed is stretched out, but the reason why her and her father are the sole members of the family is much more affectingly done. When it boils down to seemingly-unlovable-girl-being-fought-over-by-various-friends-including-two-nice-boys, it really can provide the entertainment we deserve from this kind of read. Finally, it can hopefully talk a lot to young women about another of the core themes – with this girl getting mixed signals of approval (boys liking her for her boyishness, boys seemingly liking or not liking her as a girlfriend) she is forced to realise the only approval needed is self-approval. If only the pratfalls hadn't been so crass before then. Three and a half stars from me – probably six from the target audience, mind.

A cute story that follows the life Micah Mckinney and her adventures in her new neighborhood where's she just moved in with her dad. The book reads like her personal diary as Micah counts down to the day she is due to start seventh grade and she's got 81 days to re-create herself before that.

An entertaining read with relatable characters. Would recommend to children and young adults.

Many thanks to Nina Chapman, NetGalley, and Capstone Editions for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was received as an ARC from Capstone in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

Everyone knows the struggles of moving to a new place and not only trying to fit in but understand the complications in life such as being a girl and transforming into a woman. With a scene in the community pool turns into a nightmare of adolescence Micah tries to piece the puzzle together and understand the complications of womanhood having it all make sense in her mind. In the meantime, she makes a new friend and might even have a boyfriend all at 12 years old. A book that is fit for the young adult and even some parents to learn what it is like growing up adolescent.

We will consider adding this title to our JFiction collection at the library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

This is the sort of story that sneaks up on you, and sucks you in. It begins with a girl moving to a new home, and meeting the local boys. From there, we go to the mystery of why the girl, Micah, is in the new home, and how <em>something</em> happened in her old home, having to do with the death of her mother, soccer, and mean girls.

And her plan.

Micah's plan is to reinvent her self at her new school.

Her voice is right for the story. The other kids are too.

I really wanted everything to turn out right for Micah and for the mean-girls to get caught being mean.

The author said she started it just writing the scene where she gets a weggie in her bathing suit, and is embarrassed, but her students asked her to keep going, and so she did, and what a fun time we got out of that.

Great middle-grade book about friendship and mean girls, and nice boys, and all the fun of summer.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.