The writing [of A New and Different Summer] has an easy flow, but the story moves slowly; it has the appeals of familiar characters, a modest home setting, and realistic events, but the main theme (Katie Rose's menus and shopping extravaganzas) is somewhat belabored. (p. 172)

Zena Sutherland, in Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (copyright 1966 by the University of Chicago; all rights reserved), June, 1966.

Katie Rose Belford, who seemed, in earlier installments, to have some sense and spirit as well as brains … submits to the appeal of Gil(martin) Ames [in I Met a Boy I Used to Know]…. Gil is clearly a Lost Cause … but Katie Rose clings to her faith that "his showoff was only a cover for inner insecurity and unhappiness."… [She] finally realizes that her ill-starred hero is just plain unpleasant and unreliable, and moves "out from under his dark star." The Belford...