Author Study of Sarah Ockler!

By: Anna Chaffee

Sarah Ockler

Anna Chaffee

12/19/11

Biography of Sarah Ockler

Sarah Ockler is currently living in Colorado with her husband, Alex. Sarah writes realistic fiction

stories for teens and enjoys reading many different kinds of books. When Sarah is not reading or writing

she loves going on mountain hikes and photographing nature and children. Sarah spends most of her

days outside and around town looking for good ideas to write about; many of her topics come from her

high school life.

When Sarah went to high school she did many things most teenage girls would never dare to do,

like how she skipped her senior prom. Instead of going to the prom she saw the Grateful Dead show.

Sarah says, “For some reason this bothers people, but it’s been like fifteen years and I haven’t lost any

sleep over it. I know people who would be extremely upset over missing prom but Sarah didn’t even

care.

Another thing that Sarah would do in high school was that she would just show up at school in

her pajamas and socks when she was too lazy to change. Many girls I know care a lot about how they

look at school, so this showed me that Sarah is one of those girls who don’t care what people think.

School is there for learning, not popularity. In some cases I think this also proves Sarah to be brave not

just lazy because she would go to school wearing pajamas and not care what people thought, which

many people would judge her for in high school.

Sarah was very smart in high school, she got A’s in calculus, physics, and English lit. In all her

academic classes she did very well, in fact she was kind of a nerd. Even though she was a great student,

she just couldn’t pass gym. I think that’s funny because most people who do really well in school aren’t

sporty so they tend to not do so well in gym class, just like Sarah. They put so much into academics but

don’t get into sports. Since she failed so many gym classes by her senior year, she had to take gym class

twice a day for the whole year.

When I was looking about things about Sarah Ockler it showed me that authors do have a life

outside of writing and don’t dedicate all of their time towards their writing. I think that Sarah Ockler

would be a really nice and cool person to meet someday; I hope I get the chance to meet her!

Awards

Here is a list of the awards Sarah Ockler has won as an author:

• YALSA Teens’ Top Ten nominee

• Indie Next List pick

• Girls’ Life Top 100 Must Reads pick

• New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association Book Award nominee.

Books!

Sarah Ockler is a fairly new author, so she does not have many books written, but here is the list

of her books:

• Twenty Boy Summer

• Fixing Delilah

• Die Sterne Leuchten Immer Noch

http://reviews.mibba.com/Book/4172/Sarah-Ocklers-Twenty-Boy-Summer

• Fixing Delilah

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7074259-fixing-delilah

• Die Sterne Leuchten Immer Noch

http://animasoul1986.blogspot.com/2011/11/die-sterne-leuchten-immer-noch-von.html

Fixing Delilah Little Brown, 2010, 308 pp., $16.99

Sarah Ockler ISBN 978-0-316-05209-2

It’s hard getting along with your mom, sometimes you just can’t talk to her. This is what Delilah

is going through throughout the book, Fixing Delilah.

Delilah Hannaford is a sixteen year old girl who lives alone with her Mom. Delilah and her Mom,

Claire, don’t have a good relationship at all; they never talk about anything important. Delilah always is

talking about her life in layers, like the layers of an onion. Everything that happens in her life just adds a

layer, once on layer is covered by a new problem you can’t go back to it. You just keep moving on and

forget about problems from the past. Delilah’s family had a huge family fight a couple years before her

Grandmothers death, when her Grandmother died it forced the family to come back together. Even

though death is sad, it also brought a bright side into Delilah’s relationship with her mother and family!

I liked the book Fixing Delilah by Sarah Ockler for many reasons. I thought that Sarah Ockler did

a really good job of saying what Delilah was thinking or feeling, it made me feel like I was right there

inside Delilah’s mind trying to tell her what to do in certain situations. For example, “I want to ask a

hundred questions now – all the ones I held back in the car and in the yard, still pinned beneath my

tongue by waning sympathy for my Mother’s pain. But we lose our words easily here. I don’t ask, she

doesn’t offer, and through our mutual silence we go about our work efficiently,” (pg. 20.) I just wanted

to yell at her, “ASK HER! It’s the perfect chance; you’ve been wanting to talk to her… SO DO IT!” From

the beginning of the book Delilah had been talking about wanting to ask her mom about her family and

now she has the perfect chance but didn’t take it! It made me mad, she should have talked to her to get

her feelings out!

I also thought that Sarah Ockler did a really good job describing things to help the reader get a

better picture of what it was like for Delilah in the different places she went. For example, “I follow her

gaze to the white fabric panels hanging limp over the sink, tiny red-and-gold roosters trotting across the

bottom in pairs. The cupboards are the old kind – wood painted white with windowlike panes so you can

see the dishes inside. On the spots where the sun hits sideways, the blocky, black-and-white-tiled floor

reflects in the glass,” (pg.19,) it gave me a spectacular view of the room where Delilah spends most of

her time in Vermont. Sarah Ockler used many different descriptive sentences to help me and any other

reader understand how Delilah views certain situations like, “Awareness of its long absence creeps

between us like a serpent in the grass of her childhood home,” (pg. 17.)

Fixing Delilah by Sarah Ockler was a great book that showed you that families aren’t always

perfect; they have their ups and their downs. It was easy for me to believe what was happening

throughout this book because it showed realistic fights that would totally happen between a teenager

and her mother.

Twenty Boy Summer Sarah Ockler

“Don’t worry, Anna. I’ll tell her, okay? Just let me think about the best way to do it.”

“Okay.”

“Promise me? Promise you won’t say anything?”

“Don’t worry.” I laughed. “It’s our secret, right?”

According to Anna’s best friend, Frankie, twenty days in Zanzibar Bay is an excellent chance to

have a summer fling, and if they meet one boy every day, there’s a pretty good chance Anna will find

her first summer “love.” Anna lightheartedly agrees to the game, but there’s something she hasn’t told

Frankie, she’s already had her romance, and it was with Frankie’s older brother, Matt, just before his

tragic death one year ago.

The realistic moments of Anna and Matt are told in a way that made me really feel their feelings

of young love. Instead of telling Frankie about their new relationship, Anna and Matt decide to keep

their relationship secret. Before the secret relationship can be revealed, an accident happens and Matt

does not survive. Anna decides to keep her last promise to him and does not reveal her secret to Frankie

about their relationship.

What really makes Twenty Boy Summer a great book is Sarah’s great writing and how she puts

descriptive words to the exact feeling. For example, "Tonight, when Frankie sits at the table and

innocently knocks over her glass of Diet Coke, Aunt Jayne starts to cry, and the translucent veil of

general okayness evaporates to reveal the honest, ugly parts underneath." I feel this sentence from

Twenty Boy Summer really represents how Sarah can put great descriptive words into the perfect place.

I also thought that Sarah Ockler did a great job of explaining things creatively. Some of the

things Sarah says are really creative and gives me a different look on things that I don’t normally even

have to think twice about. For example, “Weeping is not the same thing as crying, It takes your whole

body to weep, and when it`s over, you feel like you don`t have any bones left to hold you up.” I’ve never

thought about the difference of crying and weeping, I just know what they mean. Sarah Ockler actually

makes me think deeper about normal everyday things.

I thought Twenty Boy Summer was a great book; it definitely had a great story to it. This book

showed what teenagers are feeling when they think they are truly in love with someone, even if it turns

out to be just a summer fling. I would definitely recommend this book to someone who likes Young

Adult books that are a little sappy and like to read about the drama of relationships teenagers have. I

probably wouldn’t recommend it to someone who preferred more sporty or funny books, but I still

really liked it!