Book: Lemon Drop Falls by Heather Clark
Genre: MG contemporary
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
This is the story of a girl who's mom died when she was about 11 years old. We go back and forth seeing how things were before, and how things are now.
Before, her mom was very organized, having plans A, B and maybe even C, for everything going on. Our girl had friends and everyone was happy (mostly. There was a little friend struggle beginning.)
After, our girl is stressed out trying to make things run as smoothly as her mom did so her dad won't feel the need to move and change everything about their lives. Her friends have seemed to abandoned her and she is very worried about everything. Her dad decides they need to go on a camping trip, though she feels like how can they do that without her mom.
While on the trip, she decides to do something a little bit crazy and during that moment, she realizes so many things about how she can continue to deal with life without her mom.
The lemon drops refer to a tradition they have in their family to encourage talking out your feelings. Deal with the sour and then you'll get to the sweet.
So, it's the story of the struggle of our girl dealing with her mom's death and the stress and anxiety that it causes with her and their family. It's sad. But also very beautiful. And so perfectly done. I really loved it.