By now it is almost a cliche to note Rylant's simple, elegantly straightforward style. Another cliche is the rationale Rylant provides for Summer being able to write an elegant book: Summer has the talent to become a writer. There are countless young adult books with first-person narrators who are aspiring writers, so that they are able to write the book one is reading.

In any case, Summer is an engaging storyteller; her lack of self-pity and hardheaded determination to get on with living enhance her appeal. As for the prose style, it very much what readers expect from Rylant. For example, note this description of Cletus's mother: "Mrs. Underwood looked to be made of dried-out apples. She was small and tight and dry, just like her house, but with a shine that attracted me. She shook my hand, and her thin cool fingers felt like twigs...