THE LEGACY OF GLORIA RUSSELL

"From the moment she touched Satan, Gloria Russell was never the same," begins this impressive first novel, narrated by Gloria's best friend, 12-year-old Billy James Wilkins. The "Satan" to which he refers is Josef Satan, a man who lives up on the mountain, not far from Billy James's Gram. Gilbert's novel is set in the present, but her themes of children whiling away an afternoon fishing for tadpoles and townsfolk nursing generations-old grudges contribute to the feeling that time has forgotten this small town. A quiet mystery unfolds as the boy describes his sense of abandonment when Gloria began spending time with Mr. Satan, and his sense of loss after her death. Readers will quickly adopt his no-nonsense take on things as he attempts to understand his best friend's death and the history of the town's prejudice against Mr. Satan. The author wisely leaves some things to readers' imaginations; she hints at a childhood connection between Mr. Satan and Gloria's mother, for instance, and indicates that Gloria may have been wiser than Billy James in some ways, but that he has talents of his own. The skillful prose underscores a world of too-cozy neighbors ("I wondered how Satan could ever fit into a puzzle of a town that only had room for pieces with comfortable edges," Billy James observes). Billy James's growing relationships with both Gram and Mr. Satan develop so subtly that perhaps only at the conclusion will readers realize how fluidly the author has conveyed the hero's maturation and the many ways in which Gloria's legacy has affected him. Ages 8-12. (Apr.)