The Garden of Eve by K.L. Going ****

I've just finished another Mark Twain Award nominee, & the best one word description is "magical". Evie lost her mother to cancer 10 months ago, & her father has moved them far away from their home in Michigan to a failing apple orchard in New York state. She meets a boy who says he's a ghost, & gets a gift from someone she never met. And when given the choice between this world or one where her mother may be waiting for her, she has a hard time deciding.
The heartache of loss is told very well in this book. Losing a parent is never easy, but I can imagine losing one at the age of 10 would bring your world to a halt. Change is inevitable, & it's hard moving forward when you feel like you're leaving someone behind. But as Evie's mother says in the book, "There's a time for birth & a time for death. Life moves in cycles, Evie. That's the way things are meant to be."
May you read this book & find the beauty in life again.