Getting Near to Baby

After their baby sister dies, Willa Jo and Little Sister's family falls apart. Their mother sinks deep into an unshakable depression, so the two older girls are sent to live with their strict Aunt Patty and her husband. Since Little Sister refuses to talk, Willa Jo has to try and make things right in their new home, but she can't stop missing her mother or the life the four of them had before Baby died. Aunt Patty is trying as hard as she can, but she doesn't really understand what Willa Jo and Little Sister are trying to deal with-until the morning the two girls climb up to the roof of her house, and stay there. Audrey Couloumbis's masterful debut novel brings to mind Karen Hesse, Katherine Paterson, and Betsy Byars's The Summer of the Swans-it is a story you will never forget.