VVMBookBlog

Ready to read a romance with a little bit more?  Monsoon Summer tells us about 15-year-old Jasmine who has so much going for her.  She is tall, strong and athletic and a star of her track team.  She has a great family, including her bug-loving younger brother.  And she and her best friend Steve have a successful business selling souvenir photo-postcards on the Berkeley campus.  But, she also has a secret crush on her life-long best friend Steve and doesn’t recognize her value to him or to any other part of her life.  And now she’s going to India for the summer!

Why India?  Jazz’s mother was living in an orphanage in India when she was adopted by an American couple.  Now as an adult she has acquired a grant that allows her to go back to set up a clinic at the orphanage for other poor, pregnant women to help ensure more healthy babies.  Jazz and her family will all go to India for the summer to support her mother and her project.

Their family has always observed customs from India, including foods from India and learning to speak Hindi.  Jazz still had trouble taking in the poverty and crowded conditions in India.  And, because it was during the summer months for Jazz, that meant it was monsoon season in India and raining all the time.

Read Monsoon Summer to see how Jazz figures out how she fits into this summer of giving by her family, how she works out her relationship with Steve from thousands of miles away, and learns how to see herself with new eyes.