Pamela Woods-Jackson

I received a free copy of this book from LibraryThing for review. Overall it was an enjoyable and cute story about a 16 year old girl who has graduated early and is now facing the scary idea of going off to college. I thought the doubts and fears of Millie the main character made a lot of sense for her situation. Going off to college is nerve wracking enough when you're 18, it would be even scarier at 16. I did find the character frustrating at times (such as her continual fear that her parents or grandmother couldn't take care of her siblings on their own) and overdramatic about little things but then again that's what it's like to be 16. The one problem I had with it was that after all of her understandable reluctance to choose a school she ended up going with one mostly based on it being close to her brand new boyfriend. I did like the romance aspect of this book but I just wish she would have found a little more confidence or direction near the end of the book. The true highlight of this book however is the journal aspects. I loved reading the journal entries and the way she found parallells between Synthia's and her own life. That was really what drove this book forward. Overall a cute young adult book.… (mehr)

I received a free copy of this book from LibraryThing in exchange for an honest review.

I should have liked this one; it has everything in it that I usually like such as a main character in love with history (especially living history). However, while sweet, Genius Summer had quite a few problems. One is that there's a whole lot of "showing and not telling". Pages and pages are spent with the characters sharing exposition in dialogue. Furthermore, many plot points are repeated over and over again. Did you know that Oklahoma is hotter than Indianapolis? I do now, as Millie must have mentioned in a thousand times throughout the text. In addition, I didn't really like Millie. She has an off-putting way of thinking she knows more than everyone else does. She's constantly trying to parent her own parents. I wanted to yell at her that her parents (and grandmother for that matter) surely know how to take care of an 8 and 12 year old. For some reason though, Millie seems to think she's the only one who can care for her family properly. She also laments about not having any friends but then treats the two she has from her high school poorly.

The main plot is that Millie as a genius is valedictorian of her prep school at age16. Everyone has their own plans for her for after college but she feels unready to make that giant leap. Her one friend wants her to go to school at Indiana University and dorm with her, her parents want her to go to an Ivy League back east and her grandmother wants her to go a small liberal arts college in Oklahoma. Instead of telling these people what she wants - or that she's not sure of what she wants at all- she avoids the topic and makes her poor friend miss out on the dorm she wanted. She goes to Oklahoma to visit her grandmother, meets a boy, and finds an old diary from 1865 (contained with all the clichés of the I-found-an-old-diary that one might expect) yet also finds her voice along the way.

I won't say that "Genius Summer" is terrible but I don't think it's an especially great book either. I'd say to go read the similarly themed "Past Perfect" by Leila Sales instead.… (mehr)

When I think of history I want to yawn. When Millie thinks of history she wants to swoon. This is the story of Millie, a 16 year old genius who has just graduated high school first in her class. She has opportunities to go to colleges around the country but is unsure of whether she wants to go at all, partly because she helps her parents with her younger siblings, and partly because of her age. Spending the summer with her grandmother, she discovers the journal of a teenage girl from the 1800s. Drawing from the courage that the diary's author, a 15-year-old girl named Synthia, Millie discovers the benefits of stepping outside of her comfort zone and taking chances.… (mehr)