Summer To Die by Lois Lowry: A Book Review

Lois Lowry was born March 20, 1937 in Hawaii to Robert and Katharine Hammersberg. Her father was an Army dentist and the family lived all over the world. She attended Brown University, but left after her sophomore year to get married and raise a family of four children. They settled in Maine, where she returned to college and received her degree from the University of Southern Maine. Lois Lowry fulfilled a childhood dream when she began writing in the mid-1970's. Now divorced, she lives in West Cambridge with her dog, Bandit, and spends weekends in her 19th century farmhouse in New Hampshire.

Lois Lowry has written of over 20 novels and winner of the Newbery Medal twice. This native of Hawaii has become a favorite of both children and young adults. She has tackled a number of topics in her literature including adoption, mental illness, cancer, the Holocaust and futuristic societies. Whatever the theme, Lowry portrays realistic life experiences to her audience.

In her books, Lois Lowry throws her characters and readers into many thought-provoking situations. The contemporary young adult reader is compelled to confront society with all of its imperfections. Lois Lowry told Contemporary Authors that she measures her success as an author by her ability to "help adolescents answer their own questions about life, identity and human relationships." She wrote the novel “A Summer to Die” in Boston. MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1977.
The story is about Margaret and Molly Chalmers, siblings of different characteristics. Their father is an English professor at a university who wishes to find a house that will help him finish the book he was writing about dialects that he claims will shake the world of literature. Their family relocates to a small country house where the sickness of Molly started.
The owner of the house the family is renting lives down the road in a smaller house on the same property. The sisters soon establish a rapport with the elderly Will Banks, who learns about photography with Meg and teaches Molly about the abundant wildflowers covering the estate. A few months after coming to the country, Molly begins having constant nosebleeds the doctor blames on the cold weather. Unfortunately, he wasn't aware of the underlying cause, and it is not until Molly's bed is soaked in blood that she is rushed to the hospital and diagnosed with the ultimately fatal disease leukemia. She seems to recover slightly, though the pills she's taking are causing her hair to fall out.
Shortly thereafter, Ben Brady and a pregnant Maria Abbott, who the townspeople assume incorrectly that they are not married, arrive to make the third Banks house their home, and all the inhabitants of the property enjoy each other's company for a while. Then the unthinkable happens, and Molly is rushed back to the hospital. She asks Meg to tell the baby to wait to be born until she comes home, and Meg obliges her, and also asks the baby to be born in the daytime since she's been invited to take pictures of the birth. They named it Happy William Abbot-Brady. In the end, Molly dies and the family moves back to the city. Through it all, and with help from those who love her, Meg finds the jealousy she once had for her sister has changed into pure love, and eventually she must choose to accept that bad things happen to good people. In the end, she does.
Lois Lowry writes with compassion and understanding of a difficult topic, the death of a sibling. Lowry's older sister died of cancer, although she was older than the character in the book when she passed away. She used her experience to write a beautiful novel about siblings’ quarrel that is very usual today.
A Summer To Die talks about the death of adolescents because of incurable disease. It also reflects the importance of life. Molly died but a new life rose with Happy William Brady, the baby of Ben and Maria. The author used simple style of writing with jokes that makes it appealing to the readers like “saying it three times fast.” As the summer wanes, Meg is learning that their differences aren't all that large and starts to get along with Molly. Before they really have a chance to become friends, Molly dies. That is the saddest part of the whole novel. I would highly recommend this for the young adult reader, especially as a first novel about death. It presents it in a gentle way, so as not to scare them. You will feel Meg's sorrow as if it were your own, but you will also feel her hope and healing as she realizes life will go on.
JOAN B. MALTO