Friday Memes: The Secret Hum of a Daisy by Tracy Holczer

Book Beginnings is hosted by Rose City Reader and Friday 56 is hosted by Freda's Voice.

The Secret Hum of a Daisy by Tracy Holczer. 312 p. G.P. Putnam's Sons/ Penguin Young Readers Group, May 1, 2014. 9780399163937. 

Publisher synopsis: Twelve-year-old Grace and her mother have always been their own family, traveling from place to place like gypsies. But Grace wants to finally have a home all their own. Just when she thinks she's found it her mother says it's time to move again. Grace summons the courage to tell her mother how she really feels and will always regret that her last words to her were angry ones.

After her mother's sudden death, Grace is forced to live with a grandmother she's never met. She can't imagine her mother would want her to stay with this stranger. Then Grace finds clues in a mysterious treasure hunt, just like the ones her mother used to send her on. Maybe it is her mother, showing her the way to her true home.

First line: All I had to do was walk up to the coffin.

Page 56: I stared forward for a few seconds, asking Mama for help to get through my day, even though I was pretty much an old pro at first days.

This debut was blurbed by the venerable Richard Peck, who called it, " a lyric novel about love and loss."