The Lucky List

After three years of dating Matt, part of a tight-knit white friend group in rural Huckabee, Pa., 17-year-old Emily Clark unintentionally blows up “her entire social life” at junior prom, three weeks before the book begins. Now, with her Black best friend, Kiera, away at camp, Emily is single and friendless, having only memories of her mother, who died three years ago, to keep her company as she and her father prepare to sell her childhood home. All looks grim until her dad’s best friend, Johnny Carter, returns to town with his half-white, half-Japanese daughter, Blake, who’s also 17 and whose mother died after childbirth. Caught up in a renewed friendship and discoveries about her mother’s past—particularly her summer-before-senior-year bucket list—Emily sets out to complete the list with Blake by her side, leading to a summer of self-discovery. Solid pacing, paired with Emily’s accessible first-person perspective, keeps the pages turning. In her solo debut, Lippincott (All This Time) presents nuanced characterization and pays particular respect to the grief process, offering an affecting core to this sweet contemporary summer romance. Ages 12–up. [em]Agent: Emily van Beek, Folio Literary Management. (June) [/em]