SOMEWHERE JUST BEYOND

When Callie, staying with her Aunt Lil for the summer, finds that her beloved grandmother is in the last stages of life, she must overcome her fear and sorrow in order to help Gramma let go. Gramma confuses Callie with her own dead sister, Carrie, who she believes has come to escort her to the other side, and—painful as it is to have her grandmother mistake her for Carrie—Callie goes along with the delusion. As the days pass, she also restores Gramma's yard to its original condition, and in the process finds new peace within herself to face the inevitable loss. Though Smith hasn't created a particularly believable voice (Callie thinks, acts, and speaks in a manner younger than her 13 years), her spare first novel imparts a comforting message about saying goodbye. (Fiction. 10-12)