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Millie is an aspiring comedian, sister and daughter, animal lover, and good friend. When she’s asked to babysit for the first time for her next door neighbors, she’s thrilled. Lolo is the cutest baby ever, and her first babysitting gig couldn’t be easier—the parents put the baby down for the night while Millie hangs out and watches TV until they come home a few hours later. But the next morning, Millie receives the devastating news that baby Lolo died in the middle of the night. Now, nothing in her world is humorous and everything is fragile and wrong. As Millie deals with her grief and guilt, she starts seeing a light—Lolo’s light—and becomes determined to ensure that it never goes out.

This is a such a heartbreaking premise for a book, but it’s all too plausible. Although Millie is in no way at fault for Lolo’s death by SIDS, she feels keenly responsible as one of the last people to look after the baby before her passing. This grief, and the heaviness of dealing with a tragedy that defies comprehension, weighs Millie down in a myriad of ways. With a deft hand, the author shows how Millie’s grief manifests in hyper vigilance over a class project involving hatching chicks and a preoccupation with lightness and darkness. She shows Millie receiving, rejecting, and finally accepting support from many sources: her family, her friends, a teacher, a librarian, and a therapist. Scanlon shows young readers that there are no shortcuts when it comes to feeling grief, but there is light and hope if you’re willing to open yourself up to others and move through it. It’s a lesson that will be invaluable to kids, whether they’ve faced a loss of their own or not, and a lovely reminder for older readers as well.

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