Mira's twelfth birthday is bittersweet. It's the day she starts her period. And it's the day her beloved grandmother's coffin arrives. Nana Josie hasn't died, but she's terminally ill with cancer and has ordered the plain coffin so she and Mira can paint it with images of things she loves. It's one of the ways Nana Josie is very open about dying. Sometimes too open, as far as Mira is concerned-it can be a little overwhelming. At school, Mira, who is very quiet, begins to find her voice-literally and on the page-through a writing workshop led by a local author. One of the other participants is a boy named Jide, and the two of them discover they like each other, a lot. The excitement of these new feelings are something Mira enjoys even as she struggles with Nana Josie's illness. When Nana Josie goes into hospice, though, it all begins to feel like too much. Sita Brahmachari's novel about a biracial (East Indian/white) girl in Britain is a deeply moving look at an entire family moving through the experience of loss and grieving. But the author deftly balances this with moments of lightness, and skillfully handles the sorrow, including a subplot about Jide, who has a profound understanding of loss as a survivor of the Rwandan genocide. Richly developed characters full of individuality, including some charming quirks, deeply ground this fine story. (Ages 10-13)