A Summer to Die

1977, 1988 Bantam edition
Lois Lowry
Illustrated by Jenni Oliver
A Summer to Die
Original price $2.95, purchase price unknown
Very worn paperback
B-

Lowry's first book for preteens feels a bit rushed, including as it does not only the death of the protagonist's older sister, but the birth of a first child to a casually married couple, not to mention lessons in photography, poetry, and wildflowers, all within 120 pages.  In particular I would've liked to have seen the relationship of the sisters, Meg and Molly, developed more.

It's a very 1970s book, with Molly and Meg not having worn dresses in a couple years, and the aforementioned couple being sort of hippies, who believe in natural childbirth.  (The first time that such a birth has appeared in any of the fiction I own, since poor Mira and friends in The Women's Room had to deal with the same awful hospital births as in The Group and other feminist fiction for adults.)  I remember checking this story out from the library about five years after it was published, and relating a bit to Meg because she wears glasses, has stringy hair, and generally feels plain compared to her sister.  (Not that I had a sister, let alone one who died at 16.) 

I ran across the book a couple decades later and remembered how unusual the death of a teenager had seemed in the books I read during my own teens.  The book is aimed at ages 10 and up, but it won the California Young Reader Medal in the high school category, so it's one of those books that's on the borderline between juvenile and YA.  I'd say it's for preteens who are ready to face heavy topics, although, as I said, I wish it went into them more.  Still, not a bad debut for the future Newbery-winner.  (We'll get to Number the Stars in 1989.)

The chapter headings by Oliver are mostly of objects, suggesting the every-dayness of life even during tragedy.