LOLO’S LIGHT

Millie is a genuinely happy person; she’s a comedian who loves making other people laugh—until the day she cannot laugh anymore.

Twelve-year-old Millie Donally feels so mature when their neighbors the Acostas ask her to watch their baby daughter, Lolo, when they go out to dinner. Millie’s older sister is their usual sitter, but she can’t make it. Everything goes well, and Millie goes home happy and proud of herself only to wake in the morning to find out that Lolo passed away during the night. Even though the sudden infant death syndrome is not her fault, Millie is transformed overnight from carefree to guilt-ridden and depressed. The only bright spot (figuratively and literally) is the warm yellow light shining from Lolo’s room. Millie swears she feels a warm electrical hum as well, although no one else seems to notice it. Millie attempts to move forward, but how do you go on after something like this? How can she be with her friends, who can’t truly understand what she’s feeling? Even the class project she had looked forward to, incubating chicken eggs, is now in Millie’s eyes rife with potential for disastrous failure. Millie’s slow process through grief and guilt—with help from a family therapist—is extraordinarily well written, taking readers on the heartbreaking, difficult, and necessary journey that follows unthinkable loss. Characters are minimally described and read White.

A poignant coming-of-age story that explores the ripple effects of death, loss, and forgiveness.