Lowry, Lois. A Summer to Die. Clarion, 2016 (reprint). ISBN  978-0544668416 192 pp. $

*****

I re-read this as an adult, and had forgotten the voice of the adolescent character; her insightfulness, authenticity, and resiliency. 13-year-old photography buff Meg copes with her family’s move from a college town to the countryside while her father takes a sabbatical to write his book; her 15-year-old sister takes ill in the fall with what is at first assumed to be the flu but is revealed to be cancer. The heartbreak of loss is tempered with new friendships with the property owner, Yankee Will, and his other tenants, a Harvard graduate student and his pregnant wife. A beautiful story that stands the test of time as a YA classic.