As an adult, I found a few areas in Counting Thyme by Melanie Conklin that were not “smooth” for me, however, from ages 10 to 14 I would have enjoyed it. You are there with our narrator Thyme (like the clock, with a HY). You worry about fitting in at your new school, you worry about your siblings and your relationships with them, you worry about your old friendships, you are sad and happy, you try to balance your “now and then” and along the way learn. There is talk about cancer/child illness, a fire, and death, but things are handled well.
The illness of the brother is the main theme, but we are following Thyme as she goes through the several months after Val (the brother) has gotten into a treatment program. The family has moved from California to New York. Val is living with a form of cancer called neuroblastoma, he is about five-years-old and treats everything with that naïve understanding, along with being upset and more aware than you think, yet still also loving and open. This and the family’s response to this is seen through the eyes of Thyme. We see her sister Cori going through teenage things, feelings of loss and the family somedays tiptoeing around so as not to disturb Val sleeping. We see how Thyme doesn’t tell her new friends about Val, as she doesn’t want to be “the girl with a brother who has cancer” but just Thyme. We see her make friends with the grumpy neighbor. And how life moves along, even if you want to turn it back.
Even though there are “tense moments” (Val’s fevers and hospital stays, Cori and their parents fighting, the drama of Thyme and her new friends), things are a nice, cozy read with a little “edge” to it, to keep the action moving along.