Emma Hirschi

AP Psychology CP
Modules 17 & 18
For this unit I read the book Umbrella Summer by Lisa Graff. This book follows the
life of Annie Richards a normal ten-year-old girl when her older brother dies because of a
fluke heart issue and a hockey game. She becomes paranoid about contracting a disease
or an illness and dying. To cope with her grief she becomes an extremely over cautious
ten year old, refusing to ride fast down hills in her bike, eat hot dogs, play on an obstacle
course with her friends, and not wear a helmet on car rides. Everyone keeps telling Annie
not to worry so much and that she's just fine. But they thought her brother, Jared, was just
fine too, and Jared died. A new neighbor moves into the haunted house in their
neighborhood and befriends Annie. The new neighbor helps Annie to get past her grief,
move on and close her umbrella. The novel shows many different viewpoints on grief
including Annies, her parents, Jareds friends, and her neighbors. It shows how people
deal with their grief differently and express it.
My analysis of the book: This book is a really cute, charmingly told story and a great way
to get a little more perspective on grief. I think the reading level was significantly below
a high school level and that was a bit annoying at times but the story line was well
thought through and got the message across.
Stages of Grief (Kubler Ross)- Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance
In the book Annie went through some of the stages of grief but expressed them differently
then some people. For the anger stage she took out her fear and anger by being super
paranoid about everything, and her new neighbor helped her to and through the
acceptance stage.
Normal Aging- a gradual and natural slowing of our psychical and psychological
processes, or diseases from middle through late adulthood. Annie as she matured and

aged in the year since her brothers death was able to better cope with her grief and as she
continues to mature and age throughout her life she will get and even better grasp on it.
Companionate love- involves having trusting and tender feelings for someone whose life
is closely bound up with ones own. Annie loved her brother Jared in a companionate
loving way. When he passed she was hurt and saddened by his death.
Schema- an organized mental or cognitive list that includes characteristics, facts, values,
or beliefs about people, events, or objects. Annie has schemas about most things in the
book. She overanalyzes most situations for possible bodily harm they could inflict upton
her.
Works Cited
Nevid, J. (2013). An introduction to psychology (4th ed., international ed.). Australia:
Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Graff, L. (2009). Umbrella summer. New York: Laura Geringer Books.