Because of the sun
(Book)

Seventeen-year-old Dani struggles with how to process the ambiguous grief she feels in the aftermath of her mother's death after moving to New Mexico with an aunt she never met.

Dani tolerated her existence in suburban Florida with her seemingly unloving mother by embracing the philosophy: Why care? It will only hurt. When her mother is killed in a sudden and violent manner, Dani goes into an even deeper protection mode: total numbness. When The Stranger by Albert Camus is summer reading for school, it feels like fate. The main character's alienation after his mother's death mirrors her own. Then Dani is sent to New Mexico to live with an aunt she never knew she had. She meets Paulo, who understands how much Dani is hurting. As Dani learns about her mother's past, will she find a way to move forward?

HL640L,Lexile

Decoding demand: 92 (very high),Semantic demand: 100 (very high),Syntactic demand: 90 (very high),Structure demand: 86 (very high),Lexile