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Friendship:
Molly and Will comfort each other and are there for each other.

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Life and death
Envy and jealousy
Coming of Age

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Meg and Molly Chalmers have to leave their school in the small New England town where live when they move to the country. Their parents tell them that Macwahoc Valley Consolidated School is the name of the new school they will attend.

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Meg: a smart and complex girl whose sister Molly is dying from cancer. Meg is a girl who doesn't quite fit into her school, is jealous of her easygoing sibling, and is moody and impatient most of the time.
Charles and Lydia are Meg and Molly's parents.
Loony Willie: excellent cabinetmaker who decided to stay on the farm.

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Meg compares herself to her sister and feels inferior to her.

I know this because Meg said: "Being both determined and unsure at the same time is what makes me the way I am, I think: hasty, impetuous, sometimes angry over nothing, often miserable about everything. Being so well sorted out in her own goals, and so assured of everything happening the way she wants and expects it to, is what makes Molly the way she is: calm, easygoing, self-confident, downright smug."

This tells us that the sisters are so different. Meg compares herself to her sister. She feels surprised and confused when Molly draws a chalk line down the center of the room and dares Meg to cross over to her side.

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Molly begins having constant nosebleeds, which the doctor blames on the cold weather. Unfortunately, it is not until Molly's bed is soaked in blood that she is rushed to the hospital

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Chapter 1:

Molly takes a piece of white chalk and draws a line across the carpet, up the wall on one side and then on the other. She tells Meg to stay on her side of the room. Molly is prettier than Meg but Meg is smarter. Meg wants to become important someday. All Molly wants is to be Mrs. Somebody and have lots of kids. The sisters are very different in other ways: Molly is easy going and confident while Meg is unsure and impetuous.
Chapter 2:
Things seem to be going better at the new house. Lydia, their mother, is very happy. Molly and her mother are a lot alike. When they seem excited about something, it usually turns out not to be anything extraordinary. Meg's father is making a lot of progress on his book. He writes the entire time Molly and Meg are gone to school and rarely takes a break. Meg takes comfort in the sounds that come from the room, his typing, the crumpling up of sheets of paper and his frequent mumbling to himself.  Lydia decides to make a patchwork quilt from scraps of the material from dresses Meg and Molly had worn as little kids. It recalls to Meg her younger days. Meg notices the look on her mother's face. Lydia is emotional and sad.
Chapter 3:
Meg finds February to be the worst month in New England. Her mother thinks April is when everything melts and becomes sloppy and muddy. But to Meg and her father February is worse. The snow is old news and boring and the temperature is bitter cold. Meg hasn't been able to walk over to Will's house because it has been so frigid. Her father is experiencing a terrible writer's block and often just sits at the window looking out over the snowy fields. Charles tells her that Will is a master cabinetmaker and could have earned a great income had he gone off to a big city but instead has chosen to stay on the family farm. Some people believe that Will is crazy and his is known as Loony Willie. Meg defends Will and assures her father that Will is not a loony.

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Chapter 4:
After the darkroom is completed, Meg realizes what having success feels like. The first photos she develops are those of Will Banks and the old abandoned house. She is proud of their quality and feels like an artist. From her photography class, Meg knows how to develop the negatives. Her mother is surprised to see all the pictures of Will Banks. Meg recalls that day and how Will had told her about being an Army officer in Germany during World War II. He had talked about how happy he was when he returned home to Margaret and her blueberry pies. Molly's nose started to bleed again. Blood covered the floor of their shared bedroom.
Chapter 5:
Meg decorates two special Easter eggs—one for Molly and one for Will. She carefully blows out the insides and carefully paints the fragile shells. Molly is doing better. They keep her in the hospital to run some tests to find out why she is bleeding. They experiment with various medicines after taking a series of x-rays and inject a medicine into her spine. There is a problem with her blood not clotting. To Meg, it seems her parents are behaving strangely. They act like Molly isn't a person any longer. They just talk about the oddly named drugs she is being given.

Meg stays quiet as long as she can but finally becomes frustrated. Her parents only talk about Molly's medicine, complications and reactions. She becomes angry and tells her parents to talk about Molly, not her medicine. Molly will soon come home. She asked Meg to take her picture with her camera.
Chapter 6:
Molly is quiet. Only a few things seem to interest her one of which is flowers. With Will's help, she is learning a lot about them. Molly is also interested in Maria's baby. She is helping Maria make baby clothes. Molly takes great care with every piece of clothing she makes. Ben tells her to take a break because the baby already has more clothes than it will be able to wear. Molly also displays childlike behavior. One night, she puts her pajamas on and climbs on to Charles' lap. He immediately puts his book down and holds her.

Meg is confused about Molly's behavior because she isn't sick any longer. She still takes the pills which are making her continue to lose her hair.

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Chapter 7:
Molly is no longer grouchy but has grown quiet and withdrawn. Only a few things seem to interest her one of which is flowers. With Will's help, she is learning a lot about them. Molly is also interested in Maria's baby. She is helping Maria make baby clothes. Molly takes great care with every piece of clothing she makes. Ben tells her to take a break because the baby already has more clothes than it will be able to wear. Molly also displays childlike behavior. One night, she puts her pajamas on and climbs on to Charles' lap. He immediately puts his book down and holds her.

Meg is confused about Molly's behavior because she isn't sick any longer. She still takes the pills which are making her continue to lose her hair.

Chapter 8:
Molly returns to the hospital and Meg blames herself. She had blown up at Molly because she'd gotten so lazy. She had still been wearing her nightgown at eleven in the morning. She'd been grouchy lately probably because Tierney had stopped calling her. Meg knows that he is dating another girl at school but she doesn't tell Molly. Meg gets angry when Molly tells her to get her sneakers off her side of the room. They start arguing and when Molly starts to get out of her bed, Meg sees that her one leg is covered in dark red spots. Molly gets back in bed and tells Meg not to tell anyone. But Meg doesn't listen to her and runs down and tells Lydia.

Meg stays downstairs but she can hear Molly arguing with her mother and father. Then she hears Molly crying. A couple in their mid-20s, Maria and Ben, move into another house on the land. Maria is pregnant, and Molly can’t wait to offer all of her babysitting services to the new family. Meg is jealous and insults Ben about not being a good father. She has lots of anger that she is putting out on people around her.
Chapter 9:
Meg dreams of Molly repeatedly. In her happy dreams, Molly is always her old self. The happy, beautiful girl with long curly blond hair. It makes waking up to see her empty bed all the more difficult. There are also darker dreams, nightmarish ones in which Molly is stumbling in a field of dried up flowers trying to reach Meg. She even has dreams of Maria's baby being born. But the baby is old and and looks near death. In the dream, Molly is there and has all the answers to the mysteries of life but won't share them. Meg tells her father about her dreams and he says they are based in reality. She knows that she and Molly will be separated and she is resisting that reality.

Meg is upset that her parents haven't told her how bad Molly really is. They danced together, while dancing, they cried. Meg knew then that her sister was badly sick and dying.