By Ali Benjamin
Twelve-year-old Suzy can't accept that her best friend drowned, so she builds a theory that a rare jellyfish sting killed her, and plans to prove it.
Suzy Swanson's former best friend, Franny, drowned over the summer. Franny was a strong swimmer, and the grown-ups keep telling Suzy that sometimes things just happen. That answer is no good to her. So she settles on a different one: a tiny, deadly jellyfish must have stung Franny, and Suzy is going to prove it, even if that means a secret trip halfway around the world by herself. Somewhere in there, she has mostly stopped talking. The book is packed with real, weird jellyfish facts, and underneath all the science is a girl who lost her friend and can't figure out where to put that.
This is the trail's jump from short books to a real, full-length novel, and it earns the leap by turning grief into something close to an investigation. A child who loves facts and figuring things out will stick with Suzy's jellyfish research without quite noticing that the real subject is how hard it is to accept losing someone for no reason at all. The friendship is the honest part: Suzy and Franny had already drifted apart, and Suzy did something she regrets before Franny died, so the loss comes tangled up with guilt. You spend the whole book inside one quiet, stubborn head, which is a lot to carry for a newer novel reader and a real reward for one who's ready for it.