Module 1: Seventeenth Summer by Maureen Daly

Daly, Maureen. 1942. Seventeenth summer. New York: Simon Pulse. ISBN-13 978-0-617-61931-2

Angeline Morrow on her relationship with Jack Duluth—“…it wasn’t puppy love or infatuation or love at first sight or anything that people always talk about and laugh. Maybe you don’t know just what I mean. I can’t really explain it—it’s so hard to put in words but—well, it was just something I’d never felt before. Something I’d never even known. People can’t tell you about things like that, you have to find them out for yourself. That’s why it is so important. It was something I’ll always remember because I just couldn’t’ forget—it’s a thing like that” (Daly 1942, p. 3).

The book Seventeenth Summer by Maureen Daly tells the story of first love and spans the course of a Wisconsin summer. Upon high school graduation, Angie Morrow, a seventeen year old, encounter each other in McKnight’s drugstore. When Jack, who works in a baker, drives by Angie’s house to see if her mother needs any bread, he takes the chance to ask Angie out. As the summer progresses, Angie and Jack’s relationship deepens. The question is what will become of Angie and Jack’s love when summer ends?

Though written in the 1940s, Maureen Daly so superbly captures the universal experience of first love that anyone from any time period would be able to connect with this story. Some of the language and customs described in the book are quaint (like applying vinegar compresses to alleviate a migraine headache), but it is a testament to Daly’s skills as a writer that the reader hardly notices the time period. Daly also cleverly organizes the novel by dividing it into three sections: June, July, and August. There are not traditional chapters within each section. Instead, Daly uses page breaks to indicate a change of scene. This romance novel is not shallow and does not condescend to the Young Adult reader. Instead, Daly perfectly captures the excitement, nervousness, confusion, turmoil, fear, and joy that a young, first love can engender. I would recommend this book to those who enjoy realistic fiction and romance novels. This book would work well for independent reading and could be used in a literature circle when studying coming-of-age and rites-of-passage novels.

Extras

One interesting fact to know about Seventeenth Summer is that it is considered by many to be the “first YA novel” (Cart 2008, p. 46). Renowned YA literature critic, Michael Cart gives this novel credit for being “pioneering” and leaving footprints for writers such as Janet Lambert, Betty Cavanna, and Rosamund Du Jardin to follow in (2008, p. 46). Also, Booklists June 1995, Volume 91 issue features Seventeenth Summer in the article “Groundbreakers: 25 Books that Span the Decades.”

References

Cart, Michael. 2008. The object(s) of their affection. Booklist 105, no. 2 (September): 46. Academic Search Complete. [accessed September 19, 2010].

Book cover art found at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-media/product-gallery/B002TXFDO4/ref=cm_ciu_pdp_images_3?ie=UTF8&index=3