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Memories of Summer Essay

Ruth White wrote an incredible book called Memories of Summer. It is a story about two girls growing up in the country. They discover that one of them has a disease that may never get better. They want to live together, but the disease is getting in the way. The main characters in the story are Poppy, Lyric, and Summer. Starting out in Virginia, they all decide to move to a small town in Michigan. Ever since Lyric and Summer's mother died, they were promised by Poppy that they would move somewhere better. They wanted to move to a place with greater opportunity. When they do move, a major problem blocks their path. The main conflict in the story was that Summer was diagnosed with a diseas called Schizophrenia. Summer was always a little strange. When electrocuted as a child, she became afraid of electricity. She wouldn't turn on a light, a radio, or even a television set. Now she tries to burn herself, cut herself, and she uses strange words like jibble and groggle. Poppy and Lyric didn't know what to do. They finally brought her to a hospital that would try to help her, or better yet, cure her. Ruth White is not a well known author among many youths. However, she was inspired in her writing bu Laura Ingalls Wilder, who is well known. She wanted to write this book because her sister Audrey was schizophrenic. Like Summer, she began showing symptoms after moving to Michigan. It did however become difficult to write this story, because she and her sister were close. This story made me almost want to cry. When Summer was brought to the hospital and they found out she most likely wouldn't be cured, it was sad. I would extremely recommend this book to anyone who would be interested in reading a drama like story. This novel opened my mind to the detailed world that I am not yet aware of. I would read this book many times again because of how interesting and realistic it is.