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We Are Not Promised Tomorrow
The Long, Lazy Summer follows a young boy who spends one last summer with his terminally ill mother, which deepens into lessons about love, loss, and the beauty of small moments. What made you write a story about this topic? Anything pulled from your life experiences?
Most of the children books I write are fiction fantasy with a lot of humor. The last few years, I’ve watched the Newbery Awards, and the books that won usually have a more serious tone to them. That really is the main reason I tackled this subject matter. I’ve had friends and family who have died of cancer, so that’s mainly why I focused on this area.
Surprisingly, real life ended up imitating art. My illustrator ended up finding out she had cancer when I was ready to start this book. She’s fine now, but this book almost didn’t happen. Then I faced my own mortality as well when I had heart problems this year. The ending of the book reflects the kind of thoughts running through my head at that time period.
What were some ideas that were important for you to share in this book?
The main ideas that were important to me were:
- Honesty of emotion. How would any adult feel going through that – facing their mortality and how do you explain that to a child?
- Love – what do we leave our loved ones after we are gone?
- Legacy – if you have a limited time left, what would be important to still do before you go? What do you want to be remembered for?
What is one thing that you hope readers take away from your story?
None of us are promised tomorrow. Look around you – are you living the life you truly wish to live? What do you think your loved ones will remember as being the most important part of your life?
I hope the Wonders of Childhood & Beyond series continues in other books. If so, where will the story take readers?
This series is intended to be unusual and perhaps unexpected. If the reader can learn to look at the world in a way different than they have before, then I will have done my job well as a writer.
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For some of us, the greatest love and memories that we will hold in our hearts our whole lives through are the ones we experience and share with our parents.
They are part of our earliest memories and shape the lives we learn to live. They are our whole world, and when they leave us – when they pass over to the other side where pain and death can no longer touch us, we are left with an emptiness we can never again fill. To lose a parent is like losing a limb – you remember it being an essential part of your life even though it is no longer there. In many ways, you can still feel their spirits nearby, but they have moved beyond this realm where our five senses reign supreme and register into other senses of extraordinary perception we never knew we had.
For Raymond, it’s simple. He spends a beautifully long, lazy summer with his mother that he will never forget. His last one with her.
Nobody is promised forever. Any of us could leave this world at any moment. That being the case, what kind of memories would you leave your loved ones if you had a choice?
The Long, Lazy Summer (Wonders of Childhood & Beyond)
The Long, Lazy Summer is a tender and heart-tugging children’s book told through the eyes of a young boy named Ray, who spends one last summer with his terminally ill mother. What begins as a string of playful, simple days filled with scavenger hunts, zoo games, gardening, and homemade forts slowly deepens into lessons about love, loss, and the beauty of small moments. The narrative captures both the joy of being loved and the ache of knowing that time is running out. The season ends with the mother’s passing, but Ray carries her words, memories, and love into adulthood, forever changed by that golden stretch of days.
The writing is warm and straightforward, but the emotions beneath it are rich and deep. I could feel the sunshine in the happy scenes and the heaviness in the quiet ones. What I loved most was how the story balanced light and shadow. It never wallowed in sadness, but it didn’t shy away from it either. The metaphors, like sunflowers and butterflies, weren’t just pretty images; they stuck with me. And there’s something about the way Sayre writes dialogue between mother and son that’s simple, but the love comes through so strongly.
This is not a picture book you can read with dry eyes. The pacing lingers in places, and at first I thought it might be too gentle for my taste, but that rhythm fits the story’s heart. This isn’t about rushing to a twist or a big finale. It’s about letting each moment breathe, like the last summer evening before school starts again. The ideas like living fully, making memories, carrying love beyond loss aren’t new, but the way they’re told here feels fresh because they come through a child’s eyes. That innocence turns the whole thing into a bittersweet reminder of how fragile and beautiful life is.
I’d recommend The Long, Lazy Summer to parents, grandparents, teachers, and anyone who believes in the power of stories to start conversations about love and loss. It’s especially good for families looking to help children process grief in a gentle way. It’s also for grown-ups who need a reminder that even in goodbye, there’s a kind of forever.
Pages: 113 | ASIN : B0FG23Y128
LITERARY TITAN 