Summer in the Invisible City

April 18, 2016
Romano (First There Was Forever) again explores long-time best friends growing apart, as well as the excitement and confusion of first love. Sadie Bell lives in New York City and dreams of reconnecting with her father, a famous artist. A photography class during the summer before Sadie’s senior year leads her to spend time with a pair of popular girls, who fascinate her but dismay and even disgust her friend Willa. Through Izzy and Phaedra, who’s “so pretty that just looking at her feels like staring,” Sadie runs into Noah, a boy who hurt her after an earlier hookup, and meets Sam, someone she could truly fall for. Romano’s novel wanders languorously through Sadie’s summer, treating readers to the same lushly detailed writing that distinguished her previous book (when Sadie and Sam visit Randall’s Island, “Trees canopy overhead and small diamonds of light and shadow swarm the world”). Relationships among friends, family, and romantic partners are the heart of Sadie’s life and her story, and readers will enjoy meandering through the joys and disappointments of this quiet, reflective teen. Ages 14–up. Agent: Logan Garrison, Gernert Company.

May 15, 2016
The sights, sounds, and smells of New York are the backdrop for lessons learned. Sadie has a busy summer planned: she's taking a photography class, she's spending time with her best friend, Willa, and she's looking forward to a visit from her father. She's never had much of a relationship with the famous artist, but he did give her the camera that awoke her love of photography. And there's Sam: a cute guy who just wants to be friends with Sadie. Since she's still getting over Noah, the guy who took her virginity a year and a half ago, Sadie's OK with being friends...at first. But then things start to go south. Sadie fights with Willa, her father mocks Sadie's dream of going to art school--and Sam drops a bombshell: he's moving away from New York. Sadie doesn't know whom to turn to, and then Noah appears, suddenly interested in her again. Has Sadie learned from her past, or will she do something that will harm her future? Vivid descriptions of a New York City summer background Sadie's effectively drawn growth. The cast of principals is mostly white, save Izzy, Sadie's biracial friend. With her, a minor character, and a shopkeeper the only characters identified as people of color, it's clear that Sadie's New York is a limited, privileged one. An engaging coming-of-age tale. (Fiction. 14-18)

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May 1, 2016

Gr 9 Up-It's Sadie's last summer at New York School of Arts, and she's spending it in a darkroom. She has been devoted to photography ever since her famous father, Allan Ball, gave her his old camera. Sadie knows her notoriously absent dad mostly through Google Alerts. Her search for paternal validation seeps into all her other relationships, and her life has felt upended ever since she lost her virginity. What Sadie thought was an intense connection with cool senior Noah was merely a fling du jour for him. A beach party invite from the popular Izzy raises the opportunity of seeing Noah again. Instead Sadie meets Sam, an outdoors enthusiast from New Hampshire. Sam wants to be just friends, and Sadie isn't sure she is ready for anything serious, but when she talks to Sam, she finds herself telling him things she has never told anyone before. As her summer draws to a close, Sadie learns to distinguish between false and real friends, discovers the inadequacies of parents, and starts to accept life as it is. Examining life through a camera lens, Sadie begins to understand that appearances can be deceiving. Her misplaced search for fatherly love and acceptance adds an extra level of depth and introspection to the author's sophomore novel. The story is sectioned by months; the counting down of time heightens the tension and captures the urgency of a fading summer.

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2016
Grades 10-1 Sadie Bell's seventeenth summer is a whirlwind of emotion. Her life has long been complicated by the fact that Sadie and her mother live in New York City, while her famous artist father settled in Los Angeles. Using a camera her father once gave her, Sadie takes a thrilling, challenging photography class, which gives her feelings of kinship with her distant father. When she finds out he will be exhibiting his work in New York, Sadie dreams of winning his pride with her own photos. The class also brings Izzy into Sadie's life, a girl with impressive social connections who introduces Sadie to influential new friends. And there are boys. Mix all these elements together with the beauty of summer in the city and you get a bittersweet slice of a young woman's life. Sadie's emotions rocket between the contentment of a quiet moment with a friend to rage at her self-involved father to the euphoria of a boy's kiss. A lovely summer romance with plenty to say about art, friendship, and love.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)