HOW TO TALK TO YOUR SUCCULENT

Freshly grieving the death of her mother, 11-year-old Adara finds herself transplanted from California to her father’s Michigan hometown.

Worse, Dad keeps going quiet instead of talking about their shared loss. All Adara wants is to “feel normal again,” but she doesn’t know how to even begin talking about the intensity of her feelings. What she has is Grandma, Mom’s many plants, and a tentative, blossoming new friendship. One day, a Perle von Nurnberg, a variety of purple succulent that was special to her mother, suddenly comes alive and talks to her. That’s when she discovers the real reason Mom was called the “plant whisperer”—and that she, too, has a special, wild power. But like her beloved Perle, Adara needs care and attention. Poignant moments are embedded throughout this graphic novel, as when Adara suddenly finds herself grief-stricken when she has to introduce herself to a class of staring students in her new school. Precious scenes include ones in which she cooks with her grandmother, forging a deeper connection with her. Although the luminous illustrations are a delight, the fantastical plants sometimes feel too cute and young for the story’s overall tone and audience. This lightly magical exploration of grief will appeal to fans of Eventown by Corey Ann Haydu and Savi and the Memory Keeper by Bijal Vachharajani. Adara presents biracial, her father reads white, and her mother had brown skin.

A touching story rooted in grief and healing.