Erica has taught college English writing and literature courses and has a master's degree in children's literature.
Summer is our 12-year-old protagonist. She is also the narrator for the story, since it is told from her point of view. Summer may only be 12, but she's been through a lot. Her mother died when she was very young. After her mother's death, Summer was ''passed around'' between family members in Ohio, until she was 6 and her aunt and uncle took her home to Deep Water, West Virginia. Summer does well in her English class because she writes well, and she loves to read.
Although we don't meet her when she is alive, Aunt May is a very important character in this story. May was a ''big woman'' with a loving heart, an intense fear of water, and a strong faith in God. Like Summer, May's parents died when she was young. May was a ''big barrel of nothing but love,'' but she also made sure things were taken care of in their home. This included tending to her vegetable garden, which is what she was doing when she died.
Uncle Ob is an older ''disabled navy veteran'' with arthritis, a balding head, and a thin frame that gives him an ''Ichabod Crane'' or ''scarecrow'' appearance. You might not think it to look at him, but Ob is an artist. Where Summer's creativity shines through in her writing, Ob's comes out in his creation of whirligigs, objects with moving parts that spin (like a pinwheel or weathervane). Ob tries to make whirligigs that represent abstract things as thunderstorms and love, and he even has one inspired by May.
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Into this mix comes Cletus Underwood, a boy with long, greasy black hair who goes to school with Summer. Not that they're friends, however. In fact, Summer thinks Cletus is pretty ''strange.'' He's had a lot of collections, like used potato chip bags, spoons, and wrapping paper. Now, he's moved on to pictures from magazines, cereal boxes, and even other people's old photos -- ''anything with a story to it.'' Despite his strangeness, there's something about Cletus that draws people in -- probably that he's friendly and a good listener.
It's been six months since May died and Summer and Ob still don't know what to do with themselves. Summer is especially worried about what might happen to her if Ob gives up on life. And it does seem like that's what Ob will do if she ''can't find a way to mend his sorry broken heart.'' The only things that seem to perk him up now are visits from Cletus, who Summer tolerates only because he seems to do Ob good, and Ob's newfound belief that May's spirit is trying to contact them from beyond the grave.
Neither of these are enough to combat Ob's growing depression -- especially when an attempt to ''speak'' with May in her garden results in silence. He doesn't even have the desire to create any new whirligigs. Things reach a low point when one morning, for the first time ever in his life, he oversleeps and doesn't wake Summer in time for her to catch the bus. He admits something is really wrong, but he doesn't know what to do until Cletus shows up that afternoon with an idea: they can visit a pastor at a ''Spiritualist'' church three hours away who claims to be a medium, or person who can speak to dead people.
Despite Summer's expectation that Ob won't be interested in going inside a church, he is at the point where he is willing to try anything to reach May. Cletus dreams of seeing the capitol in Charleston, so they plan to ask his parents' permission for him to join the road trip. Summer is still pretty irritated by Cletus, but when she meets his ''very sweet'' parents she sees a whole other side to him. Meeting them opens her eyes a bit and she starts appreciating Cletus.
The three travelers are in fine spirits, especially when they pass Charleston and can see the capitol building they plan to visit the next day. Unfortunately, their high hopes are dashed when they arrive at their destination only to learn the supposed medium died months ago. Disappointed, they all get back in the car and start heading back to Deep Water without stopping in the capitol. Just when Summer is afraid this is the last straw and Ob will end up dying from his grief, something clicks and ''he wanted to live again.'' He declares he is ''turning this buggy around.'' They spend the rest of the day exploring ''every bit of space'' in the capitol.
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Not that everything will be smooth sailing from here on out. In fact, that evening when they return home, Summer sees an owl that reminds her of May and she finally cries for her loss. But they can finally start on the road to healing, beginning by setting up Ob's whirligigs in May's garden, giving them a ''place to spin and fly and live.''
Even after six months, Summer and her uncle Ob are having a hard time getting over the death of Summer's aunt May. Ob keeps getting worse - even when he begins believing May is trying to contact them from the afterworld. Cletus has a plan to visit a medium, and they plan a road trip that will include visiting the capitol in Charleston. It looks like Ob will sink back into depression when they find out the medium is dead, but on the drive home something changes and Ob decides to keep living. They visit the capitol after all, and later set up his whirligigs in May's garden.
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