After The Rain was written by Norma Fox Mazer. Izzy, Manny, her "Daddy", Shirley, her "Ma" Helena, her best friend, and Lewis are a few of the characters with whom the main character, Rachel, has relations. The entire book takes place in a rural countryside on the eastern coast of the United States. Rachel's grandfather, Izzy, was dying. He had contracted a terminal disease called mesothelioma. This disease usually attacks the lining of the lung and does not have a cure. Unfortunately, Izzy has the disease both on the lining of and in his lungs. Rachel, after grasping the fact that her grandfather was dying, spent more time with him before his death. She walked with Izzy almost everyday and took care of him as best she could. As Rachel got to know him, she grew to love him immeasurably. When Izzy finally became so weak he has to go to the hospital, Rachel skips school for many weeks to be with him.
I would recommend this book to another student. In fact I think that I would recommend this touching novel to anyone that could read! Norma Fox Mazer has adroitly woven the problems of a young teenage, about my age, into this novel. She created a story that seems so real, but is totally fiction. The events after Izzy died were described so vividly that tears came to my eyes, even though the vocabulary words used to illustrate the scene were only at a fifth to sixth grader's level. Because the story touched me so, I rated After The Rain five stars.