Summer Lovin'

Edge Author Katie Dale reflects on the books that defined her teenage summers

“When I look back now those summers seemed to last forever…”

Summer holidays feature heavily in teen fiction – they’re an escape from the regimented timetables of school and homework, a chance to travel, see new places, meet new people, have summer flings, and quite often they’re life-changing. And usually they’re hot and sunny!

Books like these make perfect summer holiday reading, whilst the holidays themselves allow the freedom to indulge - endless hours of free time meant a big trip to the library at the beginning of the holidays when I was younger, returning with a stack of books to be devoured at leisure wherever the summer took me. 

Whether lying in the sun, waiting at an airport, travelling, or curled up inside with the rain pouring down, books transported me to all sorts of weird and wonderful places every summer - having wonderful adventures and lashings of ginger beer in Dorset with The Secret Seven and Famous Five; falling in love in California with the Sweet Valley Twins and Judy Blume; summers of self-discovery with Caroline B. Cooney, Sarah Dessen, and Paula Danziger, tension-filled summers with Anne Cassidy - I could go anywhere at all, safe in the hands of a good book. 

What are/were your favourite summer reads growing up, and why?