A sensitive girl comes to terms with loss-and learns something about lasting ties — in this genuine, gracefully told story.

Name: Edwina Stiles Beckey.

Nickname: Eddie.

Age: Eleven.

Hometown: North Sterns, New York, in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains.

Best Friend: Sally Hobart.

Favorite Activity: Making lists.

Eddie Beckey makes lists for just about everything and everyone in her life. And for matters of real importance, she wears (and snaps) an array of colored rubber bands on her wrist. Unfortunately, the world is not always so orderly and knowable. No list can help her cope with what’s happening to her best friend, Sally — or change the course of things for Sally’s grandmother, whom Eddie has grown to love and depend on as well. With subtlety and insight, novelist Alison McGhee tells the story of a young girl’s first encounter with grief, and of the enduring power of friendship.