The most noticeable literary tool in Summer Sisters is Blume's use of a nonlinear narrative form. Blume opens the novel with a prologue, which chronicles an event that occurs in the middle of the story. This device allows the reader to be immediately immersed in the climax of the action. Then, when the author strips the reader from his or her place of limited knowledge of the story and begins "Part One" of the tale in 1977, the reader has a sense of impending action and is thus lent a position of power in relation to the characters. The reader is placed in a somewhat omniscient position himself, so that he can look for clues in past events as they are presented that will shed light on the action that occurred in the prologue. The reader is thus more actively engaged. What is interesting about this is...