A Corner of the Universe

This is a truly amazing story about a special bond between a special needs man and his niece. Adam is sent away to a special school when Hattie was very little. When she is 12, his special school closes and he is sent home to his high-society parents who try to keep him hidden away. Hattie and Adam are two peas in a pod and get along fabulously. One day while visiting, Adam meets Angel Valentine whom he immediately lusts over. Through out the story, we read about Adam and Hattie's adventures with the carnival and around town. One night, Adam sneaks out of the house to meet up with Hattie to go to the carnival where they catch some trouble when Adam becomes over stimulated due to the ferris wheel getting stuck. The police took Adam away and Hattie didnt see him for a week. Finally, one day he shows up with flowers for Angel. When Adam had found her, she was with her boyfriend which upset him. Adam ran away and went home. Hattie followed him home and had a confrontation with her Nana which caused her to run downtown. On her way home, she sees a police officer go to her Nana's house so Hattie follows to find out that Adam is missing. He is later found in the shed where he had committed suicide. The story ends with Hattie's final thoughts.

hated this book.

I thought this book was incredible, even from an adults perspective with this being a childrens book. I think parents and their children should take the time and read this book together. It's about a girl who meets an uncle she never knew of for her first (memorable) time. Adam, her uncle, has a disability. During the time the book is set in doctors weren't sure if it was Schizophrenia or Autism. Hattie, the girl, develops a very close and strong relationship with her uncle and enjoys going places with him and talking. A carnival comes to town where Hattie meets a girl her age who's family is all a part of the carnival. Hattie doesn't really have any friends but one who goes away every summer. Hattie's new Carnival friend, and Adam hang out a few times and on Hattie's birthday Adam decides to go on the Ferris wheel with them (he's terrified of it). The ride has a fault and becomes frozen with the three at the top; Then Adam has a panic and starts to try and climb down which results in police and medical personnel being called. At the end of the book Adam goes missing, he's later found in a back shed at his parents, Hattie's grandparents, house; Adam died from hanging himself. It's a great book to read to learn about disabilities, and to compare how they were looked at in past decades and looked at in present day. It's also a great way to teach children that words such as "retard" can hurt someone and just because someone is different doesn't mean you can't be friends with them. Their quirkiness can be what makes being their friend fun and worth while.

This book was a little different from the usual problem novel in that it was set in the past -- in fact the narrator would be almost exactly my age if she were a real person, as she was 12 in 1960 (or did she turn 13? I've forgotten). Hattie lives in a small town in (I think) Pennsylvania where her artist father and her mother run a boardinghouse, a fact that her maternal grandparents, part of the town's high society, have yet to be reconciled to. The summer is shaping up to be just as usual when Hattie's parents tell her that her uncle Adam is coming home for the summer. Hattie didn't know this uncle existed -- he has been in a "special school" since she was a toddler. The 1960 setting makes this believable; it's not clear whether Adam is autistic, schizophrenic or some combination of the two.

Hattie forms a bond with Adam almost immediately and has trouble understanding why the adults in the family seem to be so hard on him. When a traveling carnival comes to town, she also makes friends with the owners' daughter. (Hattie's a bit of a loner and her one good friend summers in Maine every year.) Adam and Hattie have some good times, but eventually it all ends in disaster precipitated by Adam's crush on one of the boarders, the aptly named Angel Valentine.

During the course of the novel, Hattie learns a lot about herself and also learns some new things about her family. The writing was good and the audiobook reader did a great job with the different voices, which helped bring the character of Adam to life. Maybe it was the foreshadowing of disaster (the book begins several months after most of the events in the book have taken place)but it took me a while to make my way through this story, which is why I only gave it three stars.

What a great book. Despite the existence of the Babysitter's club series, Martin is an exceptional writer.

I really liked this book for many reasons. The first would have to be the plot, where a young girl, Hattie Owens, finds out about her younger uncle, Adam, who has mental problems. She didn't even know that he existed until he shows up in her small town. Second, I liked how the author developed Hattie's character throughout the book. Hattie has never really known or seen the world outside of her small town, and when her Uncle Adam is in town she seems to get caught in the middle where no one else is willing to deal with his mental problems. She was known to be a shy girl, but really breaks out of her shell when it comes to standing up for Adam. At the end Adam dies, and Hattie speaks at his funeral when none of the other family members did, only knowing him for a couple short months. Third, I like how this book pushes readers to think about the world outside of them, and learning to accepts others' differences.

This book is amazing. It is told in the view of a twelve year old girl. At first I was a bit uninterested because it was set in 1960, and I assumed the text would be outdated and take a negative stance on people with disabilities. At first it starts out as a comming of age story for Hattie. But than it changed, it portrayed how a person with a disability would be treated, and how he might act. So there was a negativity about the secondary character (Adam) but it was a well told example of this young 12 year old girl and her understanding of her uncle. The character Adam was imagined, but he was like so many students I have met. To me he was a real person. This is a spoiler alert, but this story was very sad. At the end I cried. I would have trouble reading this to my class because, I would have to express a sensitive side, that I may not be willing to expose as a first year teacher. I would also not be willing to read it to my third graders, I think this would be better suited for older students. I would want to read this story to a fifth or sixth grade class as a read aloud. Being a Special Education teacher I think I could read this to my class, if they were older, and not at all similar to the secondary character, Adam. I wouldn't want to read it if his character too closely resembled one of my students. Not because I would be worried about sharing this because it is an accurate portrail, but because of the outcome at the end. This might be too much for some of my more fragile students. I think it is a great story that deals with real life elements, I just think I would need to be really careful about my audience when reading this story. If I was sure I wanted to read this I would check with parents of some students before going forward. I do plan on reading this story to my third grade daughter this summer. I feel she is ready, and I think I would be able to talk about it better with her as her mother. I want to read it to her so that she could understand some of the children I work with, but also how to deal with feelings of being a pre-teen girl.

This book was a very good book for teaching students about exceptionalities, however it is a bit mature for early elementary school. I wouldn't have students under about fifth grade read this, just because of mature content. However, passages and pieces of this could be used with younger readers to teach tolerance and acceptance. This book as powerful and emotional and I thought it was a good read.

12-year-old Hattie was expecting-- and looking forward to-- another uneventful, predictable summer in her small town, helping out her family's boarding house. Everything changes when Hattie's Uncle Adam, who is said to have mental problems, comes to visit. Set in 1960, this is a touching novel that accurately portrays that difficulties and misconceptions of mental illness and a young girl's struggle to make sense of a complex world.

I loved this book it was great! It was kind of sad at the end but it was still a great book. i would recommend this book for everyone. :)

A very great novel. Filled with understanding, from a child's perspective.

Ann M. Martin has written, to my knowledge, three books now involving autistic characters - a stand-alone novel in the 80s, that BSC book, and now this one.I like to be complete, so I thought I'd check this one out and compare it against my memories of the others. This review WILL contain spoilers, I'm sorry, because there are a few issues I have with the book at the end.First, you should note that Adam's characterization clearly reflects increased knowledge of autism. This is as it should be - the other two books are painfully outdated... but it wouldn't be fair to judge her for writing a book in the 80s that uses the knowledge we had in the 80s. Adam is never officially diagnosed, but it's fairly clear from the speculation ("some thought it was autism, some thought it was schizophrenia") and a few specific details of Adam's behavior (he engages in scripted speech, he has the savant skill of calendar counting, he is totally lacking in the social awareness that says do NOT stare at women's chests) that he's intended to be on the spectrum.How accurate is this depiction? I don't know. I have a hard time believing that you COULD memorize many - much less all! - full episodes of I Love Lucy in the days before VCRs, but then, I didn't live in the 60s. The calendar counting did annoy me. Most autistics are not savants (and only about half of all savants are autistic - Kim Peek, the inspiration for Rain Man, was not autistic, for example).I was happy to see that Adam is a real character. He has interests and feelings and a life. You get the feeling that he has some greater purpose than to simply provide character development for his niece. This is in contrast to disabled (particularly autistic) characters in many other books, who really are just there so the people they come in contact with can have a renewed appreciation for life or be kinder or I don't know what. Some commenters has mentioned that his behavior is "inconsistent" - he's "sometimes childish, and sometimes adult". This is accurate, though. Adults with developmental disabilities are still *adults*. They still have adult feelings, even if in some ways their understanding isn't up there.Which brings me to another point, there are some mildly adult situations in this book. Adam stares at his crush's chest, and accidentally walks in on her with her boyfriend. It's not really that bad, but of course every family will have to make its own judgments about appropriateness. And now we get to the end of the book, and the reason I gave it such a low rating. THIS IS WHERE THE REAL SPOILERS COME IN.After seeing that he really doesn't have a chance with the pretty young woman who works at the bank (and after a trying few days where he had it made clear to him, again, that his family doesn't really want him to act the way he is), Adam goes and kills himself. And Hattie (who considers herself to be like her uncle in some way, although the reasons why are never given) thinks it over and calls this brave in her mind. Not the sort of braveness she'd like, but brave all the same.It's not the suicide or the lackluster condemnation of the act that concerns me - actually, it's very clear that suicide has major repercussions for the people you leave behind.It's the context. And this might be unfair, but I think the context is important. We're not living in a world where people love and accept the disabled. We're not living in a world where this is ONE voice about autism and suicide. We are living in a world where prominent autism organizations can make videos where mothers say - in front of their verbal autistic children! - that the only thing that has stopped them from killing those same children and themselves is thinking of their *normal* child. And when called on it, these same organizations can then claim that every parent of an autistic child really wants them dead. (Alison Singer, in the short film Autism Every Day.) We are living in a world where parents who locked their autistic son in a room and set the house on fire aren't convicted of murder. (Christopher DeGroot.) We are living in a world where it is common for people who kill their autistic children, in fact, to be praised for their "courage" and their "love". We're living in a world where there are parents of autistic children who feel no compunction about saying that autism is worse than cancer because at least the children with cancer die. (sentex.net/~nexus23/md_01.html - actually, the autism - cancer comparison is all over the place, along with the autism - AIDS comparison and the autism - kidnapped children comparison. But at least most of these people don't go out and say that those other kids are lucky enough to die faster than the autistic kids!)In short, we're living in a world where the lives of autistic individuals (and disabled individuals in general) are not considered as valuable as those of "normal" people.The suicide in this book could have been handled differently. Our main character could have reasoned that if his family loved him they could have accepted him better instead of hiding him away - remember, she had only found out about him that summer! She could have suggested that if he wasn't so ostracized and patronized, he might never have taken that drastic step. In fact, there is a real suicide risk among autistics, similar to the recently publicized risk among gays. Or, the "oh, it was brave not to want to live in this world he doesn't fit into" bit could have been made in isolation from a culture which says that all the time.But it wasn't. Instead, you read the book and her thoughts, and it's hard not to hear it saying yet another variation of "those people are better off dead". This is a message that society does need to hear again. In particular, it's a message that autistic children do not need to hear again. Yes, I said autistic children. In this day and age, we have to accept that you can't assume the only people reading a book with an autistic character are NTs with no idea about autism. Many of them instead will be on the spectrum somewhere. Or they'll be siblings of autistic children - they don't need that message either.I'm sure the underlying message was not Ann M. Martin's intent. However, unfortunately, intent isn't some magical glitter that removes all wrong. The message is there whether she intended it or not, and it's one that is actively harmful. "Their lives have less worth" is a contributing factor in the murder and suicide of autistics. I really can't advise this book for anybody, unfortunately.

This novel is about a young girl named Hattie Owen. Hattie home is a boarding house that her parents rent out to several other boarders. In the beginning, Hattie lives a lonely life. When her only friend lives for summer vacation, Hattie really feels all alone. Until one day her parents tell her of an unfamilar uncle to Hattie that will be coming home from an institution that he spent the majority of his life at. Hattie and her uncle Adam develops a friendship.I really enjoyed this book. I could relate to autism-like sypmtoms that Hattie's uncle adam had because my mom taught special education.For classroom extension ideas: A lesson could be taught about autism with a discussion and how students should handle others that may have autism. Another idea,based on the boarding house home that Hattie lives in, students draw a picture on what their home looks like.

This book is about uncle that have trouble with his mind like thinking different ways then others in the family especially his mom. The main character is a little girl but she can feel all the things that her uncle think. But with the little girl help cant turn out much different because it turn out that not so many people accept him as normal person. With the shock and terified about the way he feels it end up hang himself dead. This is a sad ending and it happen so fast. I dont want the story end like this. But worth of reading. Must read!

Hattie suddenly discovers she has an uncle she's never heard about when Adam returns home. But Adam is not just any regular uncle; Adam, she is told, is mentally ill. Adam is loud and enthusiastic and repeats things over and over and quotes continually from I Love Lucy. And, in addition, Adam lifts the corners of Hattie's universe. Recommended.

This book is a very interesting and amazing book. In this book a girls uncle named Adam that has mentally ill problems has now come back home from his mental hospital. They are worried about him and what he might do by the end of the book which puts a very big excitment and twist to this book.

Hattie's summer is turned upside down when her Uncle Adam comes to town. She is not quite sure what to think of him, but their adventures grows a bond between them both. She is thrilled that the circus came to town, and has quite the experience getting to know the crew. A surprising twist at the end of the book leaves both Hattie, and the reader in shock.

A young girl learns that she has an uncle who is mentially challenged who comes to lives with the grandmother. She befriends him over the summer at the same time she meets a girl who is part of the summer county fair. She goes to the fair everyday. One day, unbeknownst to the family, she takes her uncle to the fair and encourages him to go on the ferris wheel. He says no, but then OK. He gets up top when it breaks down and he freaks out and tries to climb out of the their seat. Police come and he is taken away. He later commits suicide.

a new favorite. add this to my 'coming of age' novels that I seem to enjoy so much.

A Corner of The Universe by Ann Martin is a great book that is defiantly one of my favorites. I read this a few years ago and I have been planning on reading it again. It is a story about a young girl and her mentaly retarded Uncle that she was unaware of untill his school was closing and he had to move back home with his family. This book tells the story of 12 year old Hattie's summer dealing and loving her newly found Uncle.

Touching and surprising. As a parent of a child with special needs, this book is particularly poignant. Does not have a happy ending, so may be hard for some to deal with.

This was an emotional story that is so close to home. I myself have a retarded sister that is so real no matter who is around. Many become so uncomfortable with her presence because of her honesty. If she is sad, she cries, happy she recoices and mad she lets every one know it. One time I remember her saying at a formal dinner party how mean someone was in front of everyone. It was the truth. This story came to a very unhappy ending, but it just goes to show people that we need to count our blessings and live each day to the fullest. I will recommend this story to children who feel uncomfortable with others that are different. If we get to know them we can truely understand. Life can be so simple but we often worry more about what others think.

A Corner of the Universe is a story about a girl who is shown a very different perspective of life by her seceret uncle. This dramatic story has what charictaristics many would call a good book. This book would not a be a good choice for those who crave adventure. A Corner of the Universe is for more of the sensitive readers who love drama, love, and friendship.

*spoilers!*This was such a wonderful book I'm not even sure how to put it into words. I got this book mainly because I've never read a book by Ann M. Martin that wasn't in one of the BSC series, so I was curious. A friend had recommended it to me because of my interest in all mental illnesses. Reading about how Hattie's family and the people in their town react to Adam really made me think, made me realize that maybe we've come farther then I thought, or maybe I just live in a really great town, to have never seen anyone act that mean to a person who is "different". It was wonderful reading it through the eyes of a 12-year-old who was completely unfamiliar with mental illnesses, to watch her struggle to understand why her family treated Adam so differently when, for awhile at least, he seemed not much different then herself.The calm and uneventful days with Adam obviously would end, and I knew that, but it was gripping to read about the incident at the carnival, so scary and intense for them.... And then the ending... yes, I cried. Because of the way the book started out, I knew Adam would leave somehow, but THAT.... I had not expected.

Hattie Owen never knew she had an uncle and now he is living around the corner at her grandparent's house. Adam has been living in a school for boys with problems for 12 years. Adam is autistic and can be a lot to handle. During summer vacation Hattie and Adam become friends and share adventures at the fair and around town. In addition to Adam, Hattie must also deal with her bossy, up tight grandmother and the snooty girls around town.Classroom connections: It would be interesting to have lit circles with both this book and Rules by Cynthia Lord. Then have students discuss the similarities and differences in the treatment and actions of the autistic boys. This would also spark conversation about autism and how it affects families.

This is a very good book. It is well written. The angst that Hattie feels is well documented and true. Readers can feel her love for Adam as well as her frustration with him and how he is treated. She is, at times, unsure how to behave around him and how he will react. She is embarrassed to be his neice at times, yet is never mean. YA readers can feel empathy for her - her loneliness and need for a friend, her embarrassment, her loyalty. Hattie reminds readers that we need to focus on the positive and look for qualities instead of focusing on deficits. Martin addresses tough topics - loneliness, family members with mental disabilities and suicide honestly and directly.

I would recommend this to my mature 6th graders. I enjoyed the language choice and the theme. Social injustice is a hard concept for young people, this book hit the mark. Although the ending is harsh, it is a reality that mature adolescent readers can handle. I think the characters were developed well enough that I really cared about what happened to them. The character's thinking was authentic. This is a keeper in my library.

I was surprised to like this short book as much as I did. It really stirred my emotions as I read the quick story.

A carnival comes to Hattie's (a young girl's) town in the summer of 1960. When she had already made plans to visit it, a guest arrives at her home...

Eleven-year-old Hattie Owen only has one friend in the world, her best friend Betsy who always goes away to Maine for the summer. With this summer stretching out before her, Hattie looks forward to visiting with the shopkeepers downtown, painting with her father, and reading stacks of books from the library. Those plans suddenly change when Hattie finds out that she has a secret uncle named Adam who is coming to stay with her grandparents for the summer. Adam is unlike anyone Hattie has ever met. He's... different. He's in his own little world. As Hattie's grandmother says, he is "mentally ill". But as Hattie comes to know Adam, she grows to love the person that he is: loyal, honest, loving, fun, and smart in the most surprising ways. Again, wonderful narration by Judith Ivey. She's great at doing different voices and keeping them all separate. A poignant coming-of-age story.