A Corner of the Universe
Ann M. Martin
 The summer of 1960 is a season that the novel's narrator and protagonist, 11-almost-12-year-old Hattie Owen, expects to be as comfortably uneventful as all the others in her small town of tranquil Millerton, PA. She's looking forward to helping her mother run their boarding house with its eccentric adult boarders, painting alongside her father, and reading. Then 21-year-old Uncle Adam, whom Hattie never knew existed, comes to stay with his parents, who are Hattie's grandparents (Nana and Papa), because his "school", an institution for the mentally disabled, has closed down. Soon, various events occur and start to "shake up" the summer Hattie had planned. Both Adam and Hattie get to know each other, but a heartbreaking turn of events leads to everyone-including Hattie-realizing that no one really knew and understood Adam as much as he needed them to.