Lost in the Sun

Author Lisa Graff has spent her writing career crafting a niche of children’s literature that covers a broad spectrum of emotions, traumas, triumphs, and experiences in ways that children can relate to. These novels shy away from a heavy-handed approach of directly communicating messages. Rather, they create a broader picture of a story and allow readers to interpret what’s being said about topics like death, discrimination, body issues, trauma, divorce, and grief.

Lost in the Sun, like Graff’s other middle grade novels, addresses serious topics without being too grim. Her debut novel, The Thing About Georgie, follows the story of a child with dwarfism who grapples with being seen beyond his size and faces a changing family dynamic. Like Trent, the protagonist of Lost in the Sun, Georgie is about to have a new sibling and must handle what that means for him. In Graff’s 2014 novel Absolutely Almost, protagonist Albie’s primary conflict is not feeling good enough for anyone or anything, similar to Trent’s feelings of guilt and self-loathing. Graff’s 2023 novel Rewind follows 12-year-old McKinley through a fantastical story that hinges on her growing and changing, similar to how Trent’s primary journey focuses on his mental growth.

Although Lost in the Sun fits neatly in the tapestry of Graff’s children’s novels, it is most significantly tied to Graff’s third novel, Umbrella Summer, published in 2009. Annie Richards is the protagonist and narrator in her own novel, which takes place during the summer just before Trent’s story begins. Umbrella Summer follows Annie as she handles her grief about Jared Richards’s sudden death, which Trent is also mourning. To combat the uncertainty and her fear over the many things that can suddenly take a life, Annie becomes obsessed with protecting herself. She reads medical textbooks, wears a helmet, and carries an umbrella throughout the summer. Umbrella Summer explores many similar ideas to Lost in the Sun, like complicated family dynamics and accepting help from elders. Like Trent, Annie comes to trust an older non-family member with her trauma. Just as Trent must come to terms with the circumstances of Jared’s death and that he’s not as responsible as he feels, Annie must accept that she’s not constantly at risk of the same thing happening to her. Graff’s pair of novels creates parallels between Annie’s and Trent’s journeys in response to the same traumatic event.

In Lost in the Sun, the Annie that Trent encounters does not carry an umbrella, showing that she has resolved some of her conflicts from Umbrella Summer. However, Annie’s feelings of hatred toward Trent are still unresolved when they first begin working together in Chapter 18, and her secondary presence in Lost in the Sun is a vessel for Trent’s own journey of self-forgiveness.