Three summers by Judith Clarke

Allen and Unwin, 2012. ISBN: 978-1-74237-827-5.
A charming story Three Summers is a tender novel about fascination, letting go and of love. Set over the course of three generations, the fictional town of Barinjii, Victoria still observes the practices of the parish throughout the years. Full of moral codes and life lessons the novel, told in three parts, follows Ruth Gower's through her life of uncertainties and documents the impacts of four essential characters.
Ruth is on the cusp, a child set to become an adult as she leaves secondary school and passes into the next stage of her life. Ruth is different from her mother and her grandmother in the way that she has choices and opportunity beckons her to Sydney. With a town opposed to her going, Ruth's Gran is determined that her granddaughter will escape the backwards town of Barinjii and be free to travel the world. But leaving means leaving Fee, pregnant and happily engaged and the elusive Tam Finn whose actions continue to raise questions in Ruth's mind. But Ruth's leaving isn't the end of her dealings with Tam Finn, not entirely at least. Tam Finn might be missing but his suspected child is found when, by an odd choice of the fates a girl with Tam's dark hair and grey eyes who just happens to share her name with Tam's infamous peacock Dancy is fostered by Ruth.
The novel deals with loss, lust, and love making for a quiet lesson about relationships, trust and the observing of tradition. I would recommend this book for girls aged thirteen and up.
(Kayla Gaskell, Student, age 16)