''A Corner of the Universe'' is a 2002 young adult novel by Ann M. Martin. It won a

Newbery Honor Newbery is a surname. People * Chantelle Newbery (born 1977), Australian Olympic diver * David Newbery (born 1943), British economist *Eduardo Newbery (1878–1908), Argentine odontologist and aerostat pilot * Francis Newbery (disambiguation), s ...

Award in 2003.

Characters

Hattie Owen: An 11-almost-12-year-old girl; protagonist who lives in and runs a boarding house. Adam Mercer: Hattie's mentally ill uncle who turns Hattie's life around, 21 years old. He is a huge fan of ''

I Love Lucy ''I Love Lucy'' is an American television sitcom that originally aired on CBS from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, with a total of 180 half-hour episodes, spanning six seasons. The show starred Lucille Ball, her husband, Desi Arnaz, along wit ...

.'' Jonathan Owen: Hattie's father and an artist who helps run the family boarding house. Dorothy Owen: Hattie's mother and Adam's older sister. Harriet "Nana" Mercer: Hattie's strict and wealthy grandmother. Hayden "Papa" Mercer: Hattie's grandfather and a Millerton lawyer. Miss Hagerty: A boarder living in the Owen boardinghouse. She serves as a grandmother-figure to Hattie. Angel Valentine: The beautiful new boarder living in the Owen boarding house. Adam develops feelings for her but dies by suicide after seeing her with her new boyfriend. Leila: The daughter of Fred Carmel of ''Fred Carmel's Funtime Carnival,'' becomes a close friend of Hattie. Mr. Penny: A clockmaker and boarder of the Owen's boardinghouse.

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, Pennsylvania Millerton is a census-designated place in Jackson Township, Tioga County, Pennsylvania, United States with the ZIP code 16936. It is located in far northeastern Tioga County, a few miles from the New York border. The community is situated alon ...

. She's looking forward to helping her mother Dorothy run their boarding house with its eccentric adult boarders, painting alongside her father Jonathan, 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 Developmental disability is a diverse group of chronic conditions, comprising mental or physical impairments that arise before adulthood. Developmental disabilities cause individuals living with them many difficulties in certain areas of life, espe ...

, has closed down permanently. Intelligent, childlike, and strange owing to his disability, Adam visits Hattie often. Adam quickly becomes smitten with Angel Valentine, the beautiful and most recent lodger to check into the Owen boardinghouse. Hattie then meets Leila, the daughter of the carnival owners who come to town. However, after Adam suffers a mental breakdown on the

Ferris wheel A Ferris wheel (also called a Giant Wheel or an observation wheel) is an amusement ride consisting of a rotating upright wheel with multiple passenger-carrying components (commonly referred to as passenger cars, cabins, tubs, gondolas, capsule ...

, 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 Job hunting, job seeking, or job searching is the act of looking for employment, due to unemployment, underemployment, discontent with a current position, or a desire for a better position. The immediate goal of job seeking is usually to obtain ...

. As various other events mark Hattie's "uneventful" summer, she comes to better understand Adam. But when Adam dies by suicide after seeing Angel sleeping with her new boyfriend, it leads everyone—including Hattie—to realize that none of them had understood Adam as much as he needed them to.

Sources cited

2002 American novels American children's novels Newbery Honor-winning works Fiction set in the 1960s 2002 children's books {{2000s-ya-novel-stub