Author: Ben Sherwood
Title: The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud
Illustrator:
Publisher: Bantam Books
Year: 2004
Genre: Contemporary realistic fiction
Format: Audiobook
Reading Level: Independent reader
Interest level: Middle school, high school
Topics: sailing, baseball, car accident, love, brothers, death
Summary: Charlie and Sam are brothers, they have different dads but that's not an important detail to the two of them. One day they are driving together with their dog when they get in a car accident. Charlie is the only one who survives. He made a promise to Sam that he would never leave him. Charlie becomes the undertaker of the cemetery Sam's buried in and at night goes and plays catch with Sam's ghost in the woods behind the cemetery. One day Charlie meets Tess, a girl who is training to do a solo sail around the world and whose father had died two years earlier. They begin to date and Charlie realizes the need to have Tess in his life. When Tess goes out to go for a test run before she sets off for her solo sail she encounters a storm. Charlie can't let her go and goes out to look for her. In the end she is found and in a deep coma. During Charlie's last trip to visit Tess in the hospital she wakes up and tells him of her memories as a ghost.
Extension Activity: Discuss with the class why it is so difficult for Charlie to move on from the past. What kinds of things does Tess bring into his life? How does Charlie help fix Tess and her brokenness from the past?
