I borrowed this book from my school library, which apparently has an opposition to leaving slip covers on hard copies of books. So where I would normally insert a back cover blurb, I will instead give an Amazon.com book description:
It is the mid-1950s, and Lyric’s family’s dream is finally coming true -- they are moving from the backwoods of southwest Virginia to Flint, Michigan, where her father hopes to get an assembly-line job for a car manufacturer. Thirteen-year-old Lyric has always been close to and admired her older sister, Summer, who is pretty and popular. But in their new hometown, Summer unexpectedly and drastically changes. She becomes remote, speaks gibberish, stops taking care of her appearance, won’t go to high school, and then seems to have hallucinations. Lyric and her father try to cope with the devastating effects of Summer’s mental illness, but, sadly, there is no bringing the old Summer back. Ruth White has written a heart-wrenching novel which, despite the sad and serious subject matter, offers readers humor and hope and most of all love.
Now that description hardly does the book justice. This is an important young adult novel dealing with important themes: coping with family members suffering from mental illness, adolescence, and compassion. Now, to fully let you appreciate why this book is a wonderful read, allow me to share an anecdote real quick:
When I was in 6th grade (entering into those pleasant adolescent years myself), my older brother was diagnosed with severe schizoid bipolar disorder (that is to say: extremely bipolar with schizophrenic tendencies). I had just moved into a new town where I had no friends, and my father had just gotten called up to serve for the military. In essence: I was the new girl, in a single-parent home, with an older sibling battling a mental illness that I knew very little about. And somehow, by pure chance or luck, I managed to pick up Memories of Summer from the teen section at the local library. My life circumstances mirrored those of the main character in the book… and this knowledge of not being along gave me hope. Much needed hope. Few-to-none resources are out there to help teens cope with mental illness in loved ones (I learned this first hand), but the thing is: this is a very real issue. Novels like this are important because they reach out to young people coping with similar issues, and present mental illness in a way that is approachable to people who know nothing about it. Too often in popular culture, mental illness is poked fun off. It’s funny to be “crazy,” right? I’m not one who cares much for the “political correctness” fire that seems to be sweeping the nation, but it is not okay to portray insanity in such an insensitive way. People need to educate themselves.
I’ll get off my soapbox now and go back to talking about White’s great novel. This novel was great for me as a teenager because I could relate, and as an adult I must say: you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’ll feel all the things that make reading wonderful.
One more note: Don’t let the subject matter intimidate you from approaching this book. Mental illness is a hot topic that many people don’t know how to handle, simply because they cannot relate to it. But at its core, this novel is a coming of age story about a young girl and the troubles she faces in her life. We ALL can relate to that, can’t we?
Works Cited:
White, Ruth. Memories of summer. Farrar Straus Giroux: New York, NY. 2000.
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