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“This was an awesome book.
Rachel B wrote this review 7 days ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
It's placed in a new town to Meg, who has to share a room with her popular sister Molly. Molly then starts to have a ton of nosebleeds and it leads to a serious illness. Meg also meets some interesting people including her friend Paul who is a photographer and a couple who is having a baby.”
“gosh she really hates her sister but if u ask me she is just jelous”
*DJ yamilisous* wrote this review Tuesday, November 24 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Meg and her sister Molly move into a little house in the middle of no where. This is because their dad is writing one of the most important books in his life and he needs a place to work where it was quiet. This requires Molly and Meg to share a room. Molly has always been the pretty one. Meg has always been the smart one. They become friends with the neighboor down the street named Will. They develope a friendship that makes Meg feel special. Down past Will's house live two young adults about to have a baby. Molly has always been great with kids. Another reason Meg has been jealous of her.Molly has a condition that they have kept from Meg until now. This conditiion is Lukiemia. When Molly is rushed to the hospital again Meg makes a promise to Molly that she will not let the neighboors have the baby with out her. ”
briana c (: wrote this review Tuesday, December 1 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“This story made my eyes water more then a few times. The idea of a child dying is never an easy read. However, Lowry describes death and the witness of death very naturally. Lowry has a way with words and phrases. She makes the story very relatible even though one cannot relate. This book is not just about death, but also about life, which helps to balance the story. This is a wonderful book for readers who want more substance in their stories.”
Alene wrote this review Tuesday, November 3 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“TEAR!!!! The way Lois Lowry describes death it actually isn't that sad, it's reallly sweet. Definetly would recamend it.”
polarbearscd wrote this review Friday, October 30 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“This is my third book in a row about a young kid getting cancer, I'm not sure why I'm running in to these books, but I am. I enjoyed this books slow pace as the story slowly unfolds. Lowry does a good job of letting you know that something is wrong, but she doesn't give it all away until the end.
Aaron K wrote this review Wednesday, October 28 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
I also enjoyed how Lowry connects all the characters in the book. There is the old man who is quite sharp and acts as the main characters mentor. There is the hippy couple that give the main character some different ideas about life and death. Then there is the sister who shows the main character what it is like to die.
I would recommend this book to anyone who has had a death in their family. This book gives a reader ideas about how to deal with death in a dignified manner. It also gives hope, by not making death the end point of the story, but instead just a thing that happens that can be dealt with, not overwhelming.”
“My 2nd-3rd grade teacher read this to us one year, and she cried everywhere. The class was like, "Ehhh what." I wasn't really taking it all in, I forget most of the book. I liked it in the way that only a small child can. I intend on reading it for myself again sometime.”
Emma H wrote this review Friday, October 16 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Really good and sad. : ) I luv it!”
Peace S wrote this review Friday, October 9 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“My rating for this book: 4.5 stars (round to 5 stars)
ghost of a rose wrote this review Wednesday, September 30 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
This was Lois Lowry's first book for young adults, before The Giver. It doesn't have the mysticism of her later books, having a realistic time and place setting. But her insight and empathy are already evident. The 4.5 star rating is relative to Lowry's other books such as The Giver and The Messenger. If it were by any other author, I probably would have given A Summer To Die 5 stars.
The story is about a young teen girl who loses her sister to leukemia. Lowry is an ideal person to write about that, having been through it herself. In the book, thanks to having some very special people around her, Meg survives the experience with her trust in life intact. It makes the book sad but not depressing. There is a strong sense of death as being a natural part of the life cycle. I think that Lowry herself must have had such people in her own life when she lost her sister, in order to write this book in such a way. It would be an excellent book to recommend to a teen or pre-teen who must deal with the serious illness of a sibling.
For a current reader, A Summer To Die also carries a lovely nostalgia (it was first published in 1977.) There is a delightful hippie couple in it, who come to the rural area to live off the land and have their baby at home by themselves. It is a vignette of life in a kinder, gentler time. For an adult, to read it is to go back to not only that time in history, but also to a time of innocence in the reader's own past, when you still had trust in life, and trust in other people to always be there for you to give you whatever emotional and practical support you needed.
(154 pages)
Quotes from A Summer To Die:
"The hardest part about living in the same room with someone is that it's hard to keep anything hidden . . . I mean the parts of yourself that are private: the tears you want to shed sometimes for no reason, the thoughts you want to think in a solitary place, the words you want to say aloud to hear how they sound, but only to yourself. It's important to have a place to close the door on those things."
" . . . when you get to the hospital, you'll see that everything is different for Molly now. It will make you feel strange, because you're outside of it; you're not part of it . . . Remember, too, that Molly's not in any pain, and she's not scared. It's only you and I and Mom now, who are hurting and frightened.
This is a hard thing to explain, Meg, but Molly is handling this thing very well by herself. She needs us, for our love, but she doesn't need us for anything else now . . . Dying is a very solitary thing. The only thing we can do is be there when she wants us there."”
