BOUNDLESS GRACE

A poignant challenge to the myth of the Ozzie and Harriet- style nuclear family and answer for the pain of those who feel their families don't fit the mold. The heroine of Amazing Grace (1991) returns, aggrieved because she doesn't have a father. Her father returned to Africa so long ago that she knows him only through letters and pictures. Grace, disturbed that books show a mother, father, boy, girl, dog, and cat, complains that her family is ``not right.'' Surprised by her father's offer to visit him in the Gambia during her spring vacation, Grace travels to Africa full of fears what she will find; her meeting with her father's family is bittersweet and confusing. Grace isn't sure she can handle two families, but reassured by her grandmother, opens her heart up to knowing and loving them all. This sensitive, engaging story follows beautifully in the footsteps of its predecessor. Scenes of the Gambia show painstaking research in every lush scene. (Picture book. 4-8)