Memories of Summer by Ruth White

Bibliographic Information
Publisher: Dell Laurel-Leaf
Publication year: 2000
ISBN: 978-0374349455

Reader’s Annotation
Lyric and her older sister Summer have grown up inseparable in their small Virginia town. When they move to the city with their father, Summer’s once mildly eccentric behavior starts to show signs of a severe mental illness the family cannot ignore.

Plot Summary
Lyric, thirteen, and her older sister Summer, sixteen, are best friends as well as sisters growing up in rural Virginia. Their mother died when Lyric was three years old, so Lyric looks up to Summer as a maternal figure. Summer has always exhibited some mildly strange behaviors such as being afraid of electricity and whispering quietly to herself, but after the girls move to the city of Flint, Michigan with their father Summer’s actions become worrisome. When she stops going to school, starts clawing at her own face hard enough to leave scars, and the whispering becomes talking to the ghosts of her dead mother and grandparents, Lyric and her father can no longer pretend Summer’s agitation is just a side effect of the move. What follows is a harrowing depiction of mental health diagnosis and treatment in the 1950’s as Summer’s mental state deteriorates and Lyric grows stronger than ever.

Critical Evaluation
Told from the perspective of thirteen-year-old Lyric, Memories of Summer gives the reader a realistic idea of how it feels when someone close to you begins to descend into mental illness. White writes simply enough for lower level readers to understand the story, but shows the world in complex detail that older readers will enjoy. For example, Summer’s hospitalization at the end of the book is described in acute detail so all level of readers can follow the event, but adds a layer of heartbreak for more discerning readers when the doctor implies Summer will never be cured. This multi-layered style of writing along with a truthful depiction of American life in the 1950’s set White’s work apart from others of its genre.

Author Information
Although Ruth White's family were extremely poor, her parents had a great love of literature. She was educated at small, badly resourced county schools, but praises her "excellent, caring teachers".

When she was six years old, her father, who was a coal miner, was killed in a brawl (and the attacker sent to prison for 20 years). Her mother moved to a place near the town of Whitewood, Virginia. When White was in the eighth grade the family moved to Michigan, but she returned to Grundy to finish high-school while living with an aunt and uncle. These incidents form part of the story in her book Sweet Creek Holler.

White's book Belle Prater's Boy was named a 1997 Newbery Honor book. White and her sisters grew up in the coal-mining town of Whitewood, Virginia. They played in the hills and creeks, enjoyed family read-alouds, and sang every song they heard. White has been a teacher and a school librarian in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. For a while, she lived in Virginia Beach, but now she lives in Pennsylvania.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_White_(children%27s_author)

Genre
Fiction

Curriculum Ties
Health (Social and Family Issues)

Booktalking Ideas
Introduce the characters of Summer and Lyric, and speak briefly about how Schizophrenia can manifest and get worse in young people as they grow. Read the passage about Lyric trying to get Summer into the basement during a tornado and Summer attacking Lyric with a cup, because it shows both Summer’s heartbreaking regression and Lyric’s strength. Then give a rating from 1-5 and tell the audience why this is my rating, and take questions.

Reading Level/Interest Age
Printed in Book: Grade 5.0
School Library Journal: Grade 7-10
Scholastic Interest Level: Grades 5-11
Scholastic Reading Level: Grade 5.1

Challenging Issues
Mental Illness

Preparing for Potential Challenges
http://jeselynsminiyacollection.blogspot.com/p/preparing-for-potential-challenges.html

Why the Item Was Chosen
I feel this book is an important addition to a young adult collection for two reasons. First, it demonstrates dealing with a family crisis from a position of strength and endurance. Lyric is devastated and confused by her sister’s mental illness, but does her best to help Summer in any way that she can instead of falling apart. Second, because it takes place in the 1950’s it is a window into what healthcare was like for people with Schizophrenia and other mental illnesses when permanent institutionalization was the go-to treatment. Especially as technology continues to advance and become more ingrained in the lives of young adults, glimpses into past decades like Memories of Summer are increasingly interesting to see how the state of society has grown.