How does a twelve year old deal with the grief of losing her father and younger brother? How does anyone? How does the remaining family move on in life? What does it take? This is the basis of Summerlost by Ally Condie.
For Cedar Lee it takes a new friend. Her mother has decided to buy a house for them to stay at in the summers. The house is in the town her mother grew up in. Now her mother is trying to fix up the house and build a deck herself. Cedar realizes it is to distract herself from the grief. Cedar sees an interesting boy riding his bike dressed like he is in Shakespeare's time and decides to follow him one day. She ends up with a job, a new friend and an adventure. Through the summer she realizes she can still feel other than grief and that she still has dreams and desires.
This book is a wonderful story about life and moving past tragedy. It is also about growing up and figuring out ones own feelings. I really enjoyed this book and felt it helped see ones inner feelings and thoughts and a bit of what is normal during adolescence. The younger brother who died had some sort of mental disability. It is never defined but she talks about his behavior and issues from when he was alive. The book shows how time, friends and newness can bring a hurt family back together to recover such a horrible time. I have to say I enjoyed this book and think it would be perfect for the middle grades to read. I hope you will check it out.
