By the end of the year I will be a certified elementary school teacher, so I spend much of my free time reading children's literature. This book is one of the best I have read this year. It addresses a problem with which many children must, unfortunately, deal - adjusting to the death of a parent. This story is concise and realistic, without being overly sentimental. The narrator, Rosie, is not perfect, but she is likeable and believable. Ms. Muchmore chose to keep the number of characters to a minimum and to refrain from providing extensive detailed descriptions for those characters. She did, however, allow Rosie to give enough information for the reader to empathize with Rosie's feelings. The cover states that the book is for ages 8-12; I think ages 10+ would be more appropriate.