After Summer's mother died, she went to live in West Virginia with May and Ob. May has recently passed away and Ob and Summer are forced to live through their grief and find a way to keep living. This is a beautiful Newbery award winning novel about grief, loss, love and inspiration.
Evaluation
I loved the characterization in this novel. Summer is a very stubborn, powerful little girl who refuses to let herself grieve until the very end. Ob is a carefree, caring father who is more accepting of people and is in search for new hope and Cletus is a quirky boy who loves to collect different objects and whose smile is as radiant as the sun. Together, these three personalities lift each other up in times of trouble. Cynthia Ryland portrays three different ways an individual may cope with the loss of a loved one. It is comforting to know that none of us are alone and that grieving is a normal process that everyone experiences at least once in their lifetime.
