FITZROY

In 1970, 13-year-old Jody Moran wants pierced ears, a kiss from a boy, and more attention from her mother. It’s not fair. Seems like her mother is more worked up about the Apollo 13 astronauts, who may not make it back to earth safely. As it happens, the astronauts are spared a crash landing, but Jody is not, for three days after splashdown, her mother dies in a car accident. Now, Jody will never know if her mother really loved her. Jody’s father has taught them to believe in the ＂Power of Intention.＂ Announce what you want to the world to make it happen. But could the power of Jody’s jealousy and anger have caused Mom’s accident? To relieve her guilt and sadness, she devotes herself to mothering her three younger siblings and helping Dad, which quickly proves too much for her, just as persuading quirky Grandma Cupcakes to live with them proves too much for Grandma. That’s when Jody decides to find someone to marry her father, a new mom who will love her best. Jody reads high and low to learn about love, marriage, and death. Each first--bra, kiss, boyfriend--which makes her miss her mother, teaches her that death doesn’t happen just once.

Kerry L. Malawista’s essays have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, Boston Globe, Zone 3, Washingtonian Magazine, and Delmarva Review (Pushcart Prize nomination). Co-author of Who’s Behind the Couch (2017, Routledge), Wearing My Tutu to Analysis (2011), The Therapist in Mourning (2013), and When the Garden Isn’t Eden (2022) with Columbia University Press. She is co-chair of New Directions in Writing, and founder of The Things They Carry.