The Burying Beetle

Twelve-year-old Gussie was born with a rare, life-threatening heart disease. To reduce the strain on Gussie’s health, she and her mother move from London to a lonely cottage on the Cornish coast. In one of the nature books she finds in the cottage, Gussie learns about the Burying Beetle, which has the curious habit of burying dead birds, mice, and other small animals by digging away the earth beneath them. As she searches the countryside for the elusive insect, Gussie is forced to confront her mortality and, like the Burying Beetle, bury things in her past and learn how to live.