BLUE SKY, BUTTERFLY

Twig, 11, tries to remove any vestige of her father from her life after her parents separate. She's furious at him and refuses to see him—how could he leave without even saying good-bye? Meanwhile, Twig's mother has stopped functioning: Dust balls pile up under the piano and dirty laundry overflows the basket in the bathroom. Twig's older brother, Nathan, offers little support, retreating into his guitar music and staying away from home as much as possible. Twig tries valiantly to cope before admitting she's not up to the task. She calls upon her quirky, world-traveling grandmother for some pinch-hitting. Gradually, through the healing power of a garden, Twig's mother returns to the living and Twig begins to adjust to the changes in her family. Van Leeuwen (Across the Wide Dark Sea, 1995, etc.) is an accomplished writer, who creates a complex, multidimensional character in Twig, an entirely believable moody preteen facing a tough situation. Face it she does; the author never whitewashes any of this family's pain but leavens the story with touches of humor and rounds it out with a realistically upbeat ending. (Fiction. 9- 12)