A Corner of the Universe

A Corner of the Universe

Author	Ann M. Martin
Language	English
Genre	Realistic Fiction
Publisher	Scholastic
Publication date	October 1, 2002
Publication place	United States
Media type	Hardcover and Softcover
Pages	191
ISBN	978-0-439-38880-1
OCLC	48536634
LC Class	PZ7.M3567585 Cq 2002

A Corner of the Universe is a young adult's novel by Ann M. Martin, published in 2002. It won a Newbery Honor Award in 2003.

Characters

A few major characters in the story are Hattie Owen, an 11- to 12-year-old girl, and protagonist Adam Mercer, Hattie's 21-year-old uncle that turns Hattie's life around.

Plot

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 had been in her small, tranquil town of 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 Hattie's grandparents (Nana and Papa), because his "school," an institution for the mentally disabled, has closed down permanently. Intelligent but child-like owing to his disability, Adam visits Hattie often.

Hattie then meets Leila, the daughter of the carnival owners who come to town. However, after Adam suffers a breakdown on the Ferris wheel, she moves away with the carnival.

Throughout the summer other people come to stay at Hattie's boarding house, such as a woman with a son and daughter who recently suffered the death of her husband and moved away, but needed a place to stay while job hunting.

As various other events mark Hattie's "uneventful" summer, she comes to better understand Adam. But when he tragically commits suicide, it leads to everyone—including herself—realizing that none of them had understood Adam as much as he needed them to.