Umbrella Summer

By: Lisa Graff

Umbrella Summer is a radiant book. 

—Kirby Larson, Newbery Honor author of Hattie Big Sky

Everyone said that Jared was going to be ok after a hockey puck hit him in the chest. They never thought that he would die because of it. Now dealing with the grief of losing her brother unexpectedly, Annie, is scared to live her life or talk about how she feels. Annie’s mother won’t speak about Jared and her father is never around. All Annie does now is read her medical book and cover herself in band aids until Mrs.Finch moves in next door and help her cope with the loss of her brother and reminds her how to live again. This is a moving story that will engage readers.

Publisher: HarperCollins Copyright: 2009

 Reading Level: 4^th -6^th Lexile: 820L

Suggested delivery: Independent read

Vocabulary: plagues, ace bandages, african sleeping sickness, grief, disease

Electronic Resources:

http://www.lisagraff.com/umbrella-summer.html The author’s website gives insight into the book and the author as well as other books that she wrote.

http://readinginaction.org/bookcasts/umbrella-summer Video and Audio preview of the book included in this website.

http://www.teachingbooks.net/book_reading.cgi?id=4698&a=1 Hear Lisa Graff read an excerpt from the book

Activities to increase comprehension:

Before reading: Before reading this book, have students answer questions such as: Have you ever been afraid? What do you do when you're afraid? Hide? Did your fears stop you from doing things that you wanted to do? Having them answer these questions will get them thinking about the concepts that will be brought up in this book.

After reading: students are sure to feel for Annie and her situation. Having the students write a pitch as to why this book should become a movie would be an interesting activity to ensure that the students understood the book, its themes and be able to connect those to themselves and other people. For a book to become a movie is needs to grab the interest of people so creating a pitch as to why this book would be a good movie would encourage them to be persuasive.