The news itself is important and dramatic enough to make impact in a few sentences. I liked how most of the biggest information is told not through first-person dialogue (declaration, reaction) but by simple narrative statements, sometimes right in the middle of a chapter. (Please see Somewhere Between YA Lit and Death.) However, this meant I overlooked a lot.The handling of these experiences of death is so elegant here. Parents, right? Go to bed? Are you nuts? I still have 45 pages to go! A great read! Read moreĪ gift from Amy! Thank you Amy! I finished reading this at 2:30am this morning when I couldn't sleep.I almost didn't want to read this because it is like a little dandelion poof of a book, it is so super small I was like, I'll blink and I'll miss it! What if I hurt it! I'd never read it before because as a kid I was snotty about the kill-me-now melodramas of Lurlene McDaniel and ilk.

I only vaguely remember the plot of A Summer to Die but I do recall being deeply engrossed and even staying up late one night to finish reading it with the door closed and a flashlight under the covers because my dad had yelled at me for the 4th time 'Go to bed, tomorrow is a school day!'.

Martin, Barthe DeClements, and Louis Sachar are largely responsible for very early in life shaping my love of books.

Taylor, Ellen Conford, Judy Blume, Beaverly Cleary, Anne M. I like to think authors like Lois Lowry, Mildred D. Sure, my taste has morphed a great deal from the angsty middle grade fiction that is A Summer to Die but that tingle felt when opening a new book, the excitement from walking into a library/bookstore, and general PASSION for all things literary are still there. I probably read it about 30 years ago but thinking about it and all the other Lois Lowry books I read way back when (I freakin' LOVED the Anastasia series) made me realize how much I have ALWAYS loved reading. Golly! I had this book on my mind recently for some reason.

A summer to die by lois lowry