{"product_id":"the-summer-bedisbn-9781984851017","title":"The Summer Bed","description":"\u003cb\u003e\"A gorgeous exploration of family, secrets, and love.\" —\u003ci\u003eTeen Vogue\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eFrom the bestselling author of the beloved Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series, comes a “must-read” (\u003ci\u003ePopCrush\u003c\/i\u003e) \u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003enovel about two teenagers who have never met but share the same room on alternating weeks during an unforgettable summer. Previously published as \u003ci\u003eThe Whole Thing Together.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor Sasha, summer means time at her family's sprawling old house out on Long Island. For Ray, it's the same. Sasha and Ray aren't related--and they've never met--but long ago, before they were born, Sasha's dad and Ray's mom were married. Then came a bitter divorce, remarriages, and a new generation of children. Now, the two families have an arrangement: use the summerhouse at your designated time and never cross paths.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSasha and Ray do connect, though, by email--joking around, confiding in one another, forming a friendship. They've shared so much already . . . what would happen if they met in real life?\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"A gorgeously written novel on love, loss, and family.\" —Nicola Yoon, #1 \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ★ “Both funny and tragic, this \u003cb\u003esharply observed\u003c\/b\u003e drama recognizes the complexity of split families trying to heal and the ill effects of longstanding grudges. Brashares’s \u003cb\u003emasterful\u003c\/b\u003e orchestration of plot, multidimensional characters, and intriguing subplots will delight her fans and newcomers alike.” —\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly,\u003c\/i\u003e Starred\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ★ “Readers should have a few hankies at the ready for this \u003cb\u003edeeply moving\u003c\/b\u003e character-driven story.” —\u003ci\u003eThe Bulletin,\u003c\/i\u003e Starred \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “At its heart, this is \u003cb\u003equintessential Brashares\u003c\/b\u003e. Introspective questions of heritage are tied together, ultimately, by the bonds of family and \u003cb\u003ethe magic of summer\u003c\/b\u003e.” —\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “A winning novel exploring complicated \u003cb\u003efamily relationships, love, grief, and forgiveness\u003c\/b\u003e. . . . The author’s legions of fans will gravitate to this well-plotted work with mostly believable, thoroughly developed, and relatable characters.” —\u003ci\u003eSLJ\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\"Brashares delves successfully into the complexities of split and blended families in this novel. . . . The plot is engaging and the characters are well developed. . . . will appeal to new adults as well as high school readers.\" —\u003ci\u003eVOYA\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eAnn Brashares\u003c\/b\u003e is the #1 \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series, \u003ci\u003eThe Here and Now\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003e3 Willows\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Last Summer (of You and Me)\u003c\/i\u003e, and\u003ci\u003e My Name Is Memory\u003c\/i\u003e. She lives in New York City with her family. Visit AnnBrashares.com and follow @AnnBrashares on Twitter.The smell of home for him, more than anything else, was the smell of a girl he didn’t know.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Home wasn’t the creaking three-story brownstone on Carroll Street in Brooklyn where he lived most of the time, but this big house on a pond that let out into the ocean on the South Fork of Long Island in a town called Wainscott. He’d spent half the weeks of every summer here and half the weekends for most of every year of his life.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Ray sat on the floor of his bedroom amid piles of books, clothes, old toys, blankets, rain gear, fishing stuff, and sports equipment, and he breathed it in, seeking her part in all of his.\u003cbr\u003e It was an old smell, habitual and nostalgic, associated with the happiness and freedom of summer, the outdoors coming in. It was also a new smell, recharged every other week, adding particles of new shampoo, a new dress, shiny stuff she put on her lips. \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e On the achy and full feeling of it, he got up and lay on his bed, where her smell was always the strongest. It instilled old comfort, the privacy of nighttime. He always had better dreams here, almost never nightmares. In his bed in Brooklyn he had nightmares.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e He lay there in his shorts and T-shirt. He let his sandy, dirty bare feet dangle, out of deference. He used to never think about things like that.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Sleep in this bed, though sweet, had gotten fitful in the last year or so. Sweetly fitful. Sweetly frustrating. The smell, with its new and extra notes, got to be as stimulating as it was comforting. He didn’t know exactly what those notes were, but they stirred his night thoughts in a new way.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “How’s it going in there?”\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e He sat up. His mom’s knock and entry were practically one motion.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “You’re taking a nap already?” she asked. \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “No, I was just—”\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Did you empty out the whole closet?”\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e He glanced back at the dark, walk-in closet. “Most of it. I tried to leave Sasha’s stuff how it was. But some of it is mixed together. And some of the stuff I’m not sure of.”\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “It would be easier if there was a light in there,” his mother pointed out.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e He nodded. He probably hadn’t replaced the bulb in two years. He hadn’t cleaned the place out in a lot longer than that.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Can I be done now?”\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Lila gave him a look. “Seriously? You just threw everything on the floor. You have to deal with it.”\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “That’s why I went back to bed.”\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e She retied the bandana around her head. Her pants were covered in old paint and clay stains. “You should see the kitchen. You’re lucky I’m not asking you to help with that.”\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e He got up, not feeling lucky. “Why are we doing this again?”\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “The girls organized it.”\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “The house looks fine.”\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “The other family is doing it too, next week.” \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “We should have gotten them to go first.”\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Just get back to work, Ray. I left trash bags and boxes in the hall. Stuff you want to save put in boxes. You can bring them out to the storage room when you’re done and stack them \u003ci\u003eneatly\u003c\/i\u003e on the shelves.”\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e He surveyed the shelves along the bedroom wall. He and Sasha had had their unspoken agreements over the years about dividing up drawers, shelves, and closet space and their unspoken disagreements about dividing up drawers, shelves, and closet space.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Almost all the books were hers. Her entire Harry Potter collection still stood there, along with Narnia and His Dark Materials. He’d contributed The Hobbit to her Lord of the Rings set. He’d read almost all her books except the really girly ones, sometimes at the same time as her. He got indignant when he was reading one of her books, like the last Harry Potter, and she brought it back to the city.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e He got out a recycling bag for his old comic books and his random piles of school papers. Among them he found one of her old science tests (91%) and her handwritten book report on \u003ci\u003eCharlotte’s Web\u003c\/i\u003e. You would never mistake her rounded, regular script for the mess he made with a pencil.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e The cabinet devoted to seashells, sea glass, smooth rocks, egg cases, and sharks’ teeth was joint property. He couldn’t begin to say who’d found what. They’d both been big hoarders on the beach. And all of it belonged to the sea, didn’t it? He got rid of some crumbling coral and left the rest as it was.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e He didn’t bother with the bureau—since middle school he’d let her have the whole thing except one big drawer at the bottom with old sweaters and sweatshirts they both used. He kept his small and unimpressive wardrobe on two shelves and one hanging bar on the left side of the big closet. The medicine cabinet was at least ninety percent filled with her stuff. Granted, he had hardly any toiletries, in large part because he used her stuff. He was happy using her shampoo, taking a part of her smell around with him. He hadn’t provided toothpaste or dental floss in years. \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e There was a lot of semibroken or useless crap to get rid of. He spent some time going through the fishing gear. He had to admit it took up more than his share of the closet, but she was welcome to use it if she took good care of it. They had one boogie board between them and he still took it out sometimes. \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Did she? He didn’t know. He found himself hoping so. He always imagined she loved this place, this pond, this beach, the weird house, this old camp bed under the skylight, as much as he did.","brand":"Ember","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46305059045605,"sku":"NP9781984851017","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781984851017.jpg?v=1730759263","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-summer-bedisbn-9781984851017","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}