A summer to die / by Lois Lowry ; illustrated by Jenni Oliver.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Thirteen-year-old Meg envies her sister Molly's beauty and popularity, and these feelings make it difficult for her to cope with Molly's illness and death.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Booklist Review

Meg, 13, envies her older sister's popularity and prettiness and struggles with Molly's degenerating illness and eventual death.

Kirkus Book Review

An appealing first novel--brisk, witty, affecting--involving a teenager's experience with an older sister's death from leukemia. Meg Chalmers is a plucky thirteen-year-old, tongue-in-cheek and heart-on-sleeve, exploring her feelings with a careful balance of insight and insecurity. Recently relocated to an old country house so Dad can finish his book, she suffers familiar resentments--a shared room with sister Molly, fifteen and pretty--but enjoys photography and a rare trio of neighbors, all older and understanding. Individual personalities are established, integrated, and then tested when a worrisome development surfaces; Molly requires hospitalization and extensive treatment, and Meg realizes she is losing more than a sparring partner. Meg's natural candor and muffled humor are encouraged by the neighbors--a seventy-ish gent who shares his camera and vitality, and an oddball, loving couple whose baby's birth (with Meg as house photographer) acids more than a pat ""new life"" contrast to Molly's approaching death. An attractive, laconic heroine in an upbeat presentation of a most difficult subject. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.