It’s the early 80s, and June Bug Jordan’s father has recently died from complications from AIDS. June Bug’s mother is having a really hard time with the loss and has all but ceased functioning as a parent. She is overcome with grief and fear and spends the entirety of each day locked in their house. She requires June Bug to disinfect any time she ventures out. The more June Bug ventures out, though, the more she connects with other people, and the more she longs for those connections. She befriends a young boy, Ziggy, and he and his grandmother become a pivotal part of June Bug’s life and her mother’s road to recovery.

This is a beautiful and gut wrenching story of family, loss, grief, and mental illness. June Bug’s mother is rapt with anxiety and fear about the HIV and the potential to get it. The story is set in the early 80s, so the fear and misunderstanding about HIV/AIDS is appropriately represented. Some of her mother’s practices border on child abuse, though, so sensitive readers beware. The author does a great job capturing the hold that mental illness and grief can have on someone. This book is a great read albeit sometimes a hard one. Recommended for readers 5th grade and up.

Reviewed by Jessie Trafton, Skidompha Library, Damariscotta, ME