Molly gets a boyfriend right off the bat, and Meg begins to pursue her hobby of photography in earnest, while their father writes, and their mother works on a quilt that she is making from the scraps of the girls’ childhood outfits. Other than having to share a room for the first time, they get along pretty well. You’d think that this would cause turmoil and upset amongst the Chalmers sisters, but it doesn’t. Since he was always getting distracted in their big house in “the city,” he moved his two daughters and wife out to the country to get some peace and quiet. Their father is an English professor at a University, and he’s been granted a 1-year sabbatical to finish his book. Despite their differences, the two girls get along as well as you could expect now that they have to share a bedroom in an old house out in the countryside. That’s a stark contrast to her older sister Molly, who is 15, beautiful, and only dreams of getting married and having kids. She doesn’t exactly know who, yet, but she knows she wants to make a difference. Meg Chalmers is 13 years old and wants to be somebody when she grows up.

This, as you may know, is not my usual trashy fare, so I tend to forget that until I read it, again. I remember it fondly (if not vaguely) so I’m always shocked when I pick it up again, because it makes me cry every time. I know for me, reading books about it as a kid helped turn the hypothetical into a more firm grasp on what it actually means to die (even if that was typically couched as a cheerleader murdering her peers due to an ancient evil that possesses her.) Although as an adult, having faced loss, death is still an unknowable thing to me.Īs a result of this being my death book, A Summer To Die always has a soft spot in my heart. As adults, we take for granted that we understand the concept of death, or in the very least, we’ve been faced with its reality enough times to know what loss feels like.

What is a death book, you ask? It’s the book you read (and read, and read) as a child that focused on the death of a beautiful, innocent, forever-preserved in amber character, who was most likely saintly and blonde.

A Summer to Die by Lois Lowry