Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

Silly was what my daughter called me when I was crying during our final read-aloud session of Lisa Graff’s Umbrella Summer–the stinker. What’s a mom supposed to do when the entire book is about Annie’s progress in dealing with the death of her brother–and her parents’ progress, too? Which I suppose makes the book sound heavy and serious, but Graff balances heartbreak and humor with impressive deftness. Jared died because he had an incredibly rare heart problem that no one knew about, and so Annie’s all about caution now, because what if? Only she’s out of money for more Band-aids and her caution is starting to affect her relationships, while her parents are struggling too much with their own grief to give her quite as much help as she needs. With the help of a new neighbor, pillows, and the unexpected narrowness of bowling shoes, however, Annie manages to find her way through–even if there’s some very un-Junior-Sunbird-(read: Girl Scout)-like behavior along the way. Yes, I cried; I also laughed out loud. This companion novel to Lost in the Sun* is a journey you shouldn’t miss.

*I read Lost in the Sun first, although it appears to have been published years after Umbrella Summer. I’d maybe read them in publication order if I had a do-over, but I don’t think it matters all that much.