Newbery Honor author Cynthia Lord (Rules) tells of one life-changing summer for 12-year-old narrator Lucy Emery and her friendship with Nate Bailey, whose grandmother is succumbing to dementia.
Lucy and her father, a famous nature photographer, spend the first morning at their newest home in New Hampshire photographing the sunrise, each with camera in hand. When Lucy discovers that her father is judging a photography contest of kids' photos, she's hurt that her father had not shared the contest information with her. Nevertheless, she begins to shoot photos, each of which demonstrates a word on a list of 25 required for the competition. At the same time, Lucy makes friends with neighbor Nate and his Grandma Lilah, who is on the Loon Patrol, which tracks the threatened bird's population. As Lucy spends more time with Nate, she recognizes that Grandma Lilah is losing her memory. A dilemma arises for Lucy when she takes an extraordinary photograph of Grandma Lilah that reveals the woman's loosening grip on reality. As Lucy contemplates whether or not to submit the photo for the competition, she wonders, "Did it belong to Grandma Lilah because she was in it? Or did it belong to me because I had taken it?"
Lord brilliantly juxtaposes the idea of moments captured with permanence on film and Grandma Lilah's tenuous hold on memory. The characters' daily monitoring of the loon family's cycle of life also introduces conversation between the generations about beauty and ugliness, life and death. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness