If grief were candy, it would taste like lemon drops.Navigating friendships, first crushes, and junior high isn't easy, but for 12-year-old Morgan, that's just the beginning. Following the sudden death of her life coach mother, Morgan puts her mom's ABC planning method (Action, Backup, Cleanup) to work as she cares for her adventuresome siblings, 7-year-old Janie and 5-year-old Budge. Afraid that her dad can't handle her grief and paralyzing anxiety on top of The Fog he's living in, she's determined to keep her family running smoothly by herself. She misses her mom's "lemon drops"-deep heartfelt conversations-and without mom to take her to soccer practice, she is also now without her team. Adding to her stress is the infiltration by new girl Mackelle into her best-friend triangle of Morgan-Keilani-Hrishi. In addition to stealing Keilani's attention, Mackelle is trying to convince Morgan that Hrishi has a crush on her. The story unfurls slowly at first, with the timeline alternating between chapters labeled "Before" and "After." It gains momentum quickly, though, as Morgan makes a questionable choice and finds herself in over her head. Morgan's internal conversations with Almost-Mom ring true at times but sometimes feel forced. The depictions of grief and anxiety, however, are authentic and relatable, and the author's own experiences lend credence to both. Morgan reads as White; Hrishi and Keilani are Indian and Hawaiian respectively.This heartfelt debut starts slowly but finishes strong. (Fiction. 8-12)

Twelve-year-old Morgan's life is on a steep downward spiral the summer following her mother's sudden death. She struggles to stick to set plans the way her mom, a popular life coach, did, and her desire to preserve a semblance of normalcy for her two younger sibs while her grieving, abstracted dad spends more time at work has led to panic attacks, broken friendships, and piercing anxiety. Then her father announces that it's time for their customary annual family outing to Utah's Capitol Reef rocky wilderness of rough trails and deep canyons subject to flash floods. Framing her debut in alternating chapters set "Before" and "After" the tragedy, Clark presents a wrenching portrait of a "regular-old" preteen who sees herself transformed into a "sad, stressed-out, parentish person" forced to shoulder too much responsibility. Climactically, a solo hike taken to prove to her father that she's up to the challenge leads Morgan not only into life-threatening drama but a head-straightening internal dialogue with her mother. Not a happy tale, but a hopeful one, in the end.