Throughout this realistic novel personal memories of my own adolescent summers ran constantly through my mind. This is a book with a very simple plot. Characters spend a great deal of time hanging out with each other, going to the town fair and even reading books. I think this is what will appeal to young adult readers. In reflecting about the book, I began to understand all that had actually happened while I was waiting for something to happen in the book. ( )

(#36 in the 2008 Book Challenge)

This was the Newbery medalist in 2006. I enjoyed this book very much, it's the story of a group of friends, pre-teen age, during the summer in a small town. That said, in a million years I cannot imagine myself as a 12 year old kid reading this with any level of interest. The style of this book is very dreamy and pensive and plays around with different voices ... it reads like an Artist's Statement for a Yaddo application, for heaven's sake. When I was 12, I liked stories about girls who got ponies and/or boyfriends, and possibly solved mysteries. There are probably 12YOs out there who have far more sophisticated taste in literature than I do, they will surely treasure this book.
Grade: B
Recommended: This is like the perfect book for adults who enjoy children's literature, but find the ponies too simplistic and wonder why the mysteries are so obvious.

This book surprised me every time I opened it. Perkins experiments with form, style and content, and it works. I was a teenager again as I read it, and not in that uncomfortable I-never-want-to-go-back-to-high-school kind of way, but in the way that reminded me of how newness felt. How it felt to wish and wonder and wander about the future, both the immediate and distant future. How Perkins managed to get so perfectly into the mind of a teenager, I will never know.

This was one of those books that I felt I was missing something. Not a whole lot happens - several teenagers in a small town (most of them in the same wide social circle) spend the summer wondering about themselves, and what they wish for. It wasn't until I discussed the book with members of a teen book group that I got a better understanding of the characters, and what the author was trying to do. After the discussion, I realized I liked this book A LOT.

The reader sees the world from almost all of the characters' point of view, which can be rather disconcerting and/or confusing at times, but the ways in which they interact is fascinating. So many of the characters are thinking *very* similar things, but either they don't act on the thoughts, or think things at different times, they lose possible *moments* - those moments in movies, for example, where the boy looks into the girl's eyes and REALIZES. Then they kiss.

Criss Cross is a very lovely illustration of when the boy and girl happen to gaze meaningfully at each other AT THE WRONG TIMES. Sounds weird, but feels very real. Read this one, then try to figure out which character best mirrors you and your life. Betcha find one! ( )

This book explores the intertwined lives of several teens growing up in a small town in the 1960s as they learn important lessons about the meaning of relationships. A great coming of age story! ( )