Summer Bucket Red

Summer: a time for the beach, partying, and having fun. But for some teenagers, it means getting a job. In the books Nantucket Blue and Nantucket Red, Cricket Thompson, a teenager from Providence entering her senior year, went all the way to Nantucket for a summer job with hopes to make some fun memories and leave her problems back at home. Cricket draws inspirations from Nina Clayton throughout the summer. The author, Leila Howland, focuses on the idea of hope. Hope is a goal or dream for Cricket in her future that is going to challenge her, and she’ll learn that she has to work hard for what she wants. Nantucket, a small vacation island off of Cape

Nina created a life list that consisted of five goals just after graduating from college. Cricket found this list and was determined to complete the goals Nina had once set for herself, but this list consisted of goals only someone with a large amount of money could complete. For example, one of the goals was to go to Paris and visit the Rodin Museum, but Cricket knew she nor her mother could afford a trip to Paris. Cricket took a different view and decided to make Nina’s life list into her summer bucket list. She knew she wouldn’t be able to complete each goal in the same way Nina had, but she would try her best to complete the goals in her own unique way. She hoped that during the summer she could be independent, have fun, and forget about all her worries and concerns back at home. Nina wasn’t able to achieve one of her five goals on the list, which was to see St. Francis from Altar rock. This uncompleted goal was what Cricket had been hoping for. It was a goal someone else couldn't complete but she could! Cricket used the list to explain herself while fighting to get back into Brown University after making a horrible mistake, she talked about how this list gave her hope. When she was asked what the final goal on the list meant she states, “It represents what I don’t know, and maybe what none of us know, what eludes us but keeps us