In Seven Clues to Home, Joy Fonseca is dreading her thirteenth birthday, dreading being reminded again about her best friend Lukas's senseless death on this day, one year ago. But she’s decided she's going to finally open the first clue to their annual birthday scavenger hunt Lukas left for her the morning he died, hoping the rest of the clues are still out there. If they are, they might lead Joy to whatever last words Lukas wrote, and toward understanding how to grab onto the future that is meant to be hers.While I’m not customarily reading middle grade books, I found this one intriguing. It was recommended to me by a writing peer as something to research for a book I’m writing. Seven Clues to Home shows the way an author (or in this case, two) can bring together two stories and interweave them into a novel that can be easily understood. I am captivated by what Joy is experiencing trying to figure out what her best friend had planned for her, and still able to figure some things out immediately because they knew each other so well.The only thing I didn’t quite grasp is what exactly happened to Lukas. It gave a few hints but skimmed over the details. I was hoping for more of a jaw-dropping discovery. But in the end, I was still satisfied with the journey (both literally and figuratively) that Joy experienced, and I will say I had to wipe a few tears away on the last page.