It All Begins with Jelly Beans

Nova Weetman weaves Type 1 diabetes management, parental grief, maternal depression, and childhood anxiety into a genuinely warm friendship story without making any single issue feel like a vehicle for a lesson — which is hard to do and she pulls it off. The dual narrator structure gives both girls equal weight and the Kirkus starred review and Junior Library Guild selection are well-earned. Readers who find the compounded crises heavy will be outliers; most middle-grade readers dealing with health or loss will feel seen.