Synopses & Reviews
Thirteen-year-old Meg and her sister Molly couldn't be more different. Molly is beautiful and popular, and Meg is brainy and introverted. Accepting these differences has always been difficult for Meg. When Molly falls ill, however, Meg must learn not only to accept Molly and her life, but to accept death.
Review
"Not simply another story on a subject currently in vogue, this book is memorable as a well-crafted reaffirmation of universal values." Horn Book
"Not simply another story on a subject currently in vogue, this book is memorable as a well-crafted reaffirmation of universal values." Horn Book Guide
Review
"Not simply another story on a subject currently in vogue, this book is memorable as a well-crafted reaffirmation of universal values." Horn Book
"A warm picture emerges of a family bound together by caring and closeness. . . . Meg's sorrow as well as her joy comes pouring out in this perceptive tale."—Booklist, Starred review
Synopsis
Thirteen-year-old Meg envies her sister Molly's beauty and popularity, and these feelings make it difficult for her to cope with Molly's illness and death.
Synopsis
With prose as beautiful as it is heartbreaking, A Summer to Die tells the story of Meg, a girl who must learn about acceptence of loss and acceptence of self.
About the Author
Lois Lowry is known for her versatility and invention as a writer. She was born in Hawaii and grew up in New York, Pennsylvania, and Japan. After several years at Brown University, she turned to her family and to writing. She is the author of more than thirty books for young adults, including the popular Anastasia Krupnik series. She has received countless honors, among them the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award, the California Young Reader's Medal, and the Mark Twain Award. She received Newbery Medals for two of her novels, NUMBER THE STARS and THE GIVER. Her first novel, A SUMMER TO DIE, was awarded the International Reading Association's Children'
Table of Contents
great theorist of the free market believed in Providence. "The happiness of
mankind," Smith wrote, "seems to have been the original purpose intended by
the Author of nature." The workings of the Lord could be found not in the
pages of a holy book, nor in miracles, but in the daily, mundane buying-and-
selling of the marketplace. Each purchase might be driven by an individual
desire, but behind them all lay "the invisible hand" of the Divine. This invisible
hand set prices and wages. It determined supply and demand. It represented
the sum of all human wishes. Without relying on any conscious intervention
by man, the free market improved agriculture and industry, created surplus
wealth, and made sure that the things being produced were the things people
wanted to buy. Human beings lacked the wisdom, Smith felt, to improve
society deliberately or to achieve Progress through some elaborate plan. But
if every man pursued his own self-interest and obeyed only his "passions,"
the invisible hand would guarantee that everybody else benefited, too.
Published in 1776, The Wealth of Nations later had a profound
effect upon the nation born that year. The idea that "life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness" were unalienable rights, endowed by a Creator, fit
perfectly with the economic theories of Adam Smith. "Life, liberty and estate"
was the well-known phrase that Thomas Jefferson amended slightly for the
Declaration of Independence. The United States was the first country to
discard feudal and aristocratic traditions and replace them with a republican
devotion to marketplace ideals. More than two centuries later, America"s
leading companies—General Motors, General Electric, ExxonMobil,
Microsoft, Wal-Mart, Boeing, et al.—have annual revenues larger than those
of many sovereign states. No currency is more powerful than the U.S. dollar,
and the closing prices on Wall Street guide the financial markets of Tokyo,
London, Paris, and Frankfurt. The unsurpassed wealth of the United States
has enabled it to build a military without rival. And yet there is more to the
U.S. economy, much more, than meets the eye. In addition to America"s
famous corporations and brands, the invisible hand has also produced a
largely invisible economy, secretive and well hidden, with its own labor
demand, price structure, and set of commodities.
"Black," "shadow," "irregular," "informal," "illegal," "subterranean," "u