"The Days of Summer" By: Eve Bunting

The Days of Summer is a very heavy book that is packed with topics such as divorce, time, and the end of certain things. It is about two girls who learn that their grandparents are getting a divorce. The girls feel the sadness of the divorce, and they can also see it on their parents' faces. The girls visit their grandma, and make plans to visit their grandpa the following week. It takes time, but the girls come to realize that although their grandparents are getting divorced it doesn't mean that their grandma or grandpa love them any less.
I wasn't expecting this book to be so heavy, and straight forward. One of the quotes in this book that struck me the most was when Nora is on the phone with her grandpa, and she explains her understanding of why her grandparents got divorced. She says "'It has to do with weeks and months and years passing' I said. 'And doing things for the last time. And not wasting what's left'". Nora's words are filled with understanding. Although her words relate to her grandparents' divorce they also relate to the end of her summer. Nora's words are very wise, and would be good advice for many things in life. People shouldn't spend their lives letting the days drag by, they should surround themselves by the people and things they like so that the days don't drag by. And for those people who are surrounded by the things they love they should take a second to appreciate what they have because before you know it, it will be over, just like summer.
In addition to being amazed by the deep content of this book I was also really intrigued by the illustrations. They looked painted, but at the same time very real. After reading the title page I learned that the illustrations were created through photoshop. This was a really neat way to illustrate the book because the images are so real, and at the same time so distant.
I thought this was a really interesting book, and I can see it being a part of my classroom library. I can also see reading it as a class, and talking about all the messages in this book.