cover image UP MOLASSES MOUNTAIN

UP MOLASSES MOUNTAIN

Julie Baker, . . Random/Lamb, $15.95 (224pp) ISBN 978-0-385-72908-6

"Overcoming heartache is sort of like climbing a mountain of molasses," 15-year-old Elizabeth's grandmother tells her. "Sometimes you feel stuck there, with the darkness surrounding you, tugging at your feet and pulling you down. But other times, things are sweet and you can see your way to go on." There's heartache aplenty in this solidly crafted first novel, set in 1953 in a small West Virginia mining town polarized by a strike. Two alternating narrators tell the story of their emerging and mutually empowering friendship: Elizabeth, whose father and brother are on opposite sides of the union issue ("Our dinner table was just like the town: It had divided like the Red Sea"); and her classmate Clarence, an outcast because of his harelip. Much of the plot seems overfreighted—in the second half of the book, there's a train accident in which Elizabeth's boyfriend is killed, a shooting, an explosion at the mine and an unlikely episode with a runaway circus monkey. Even so, the story unfolds with quiet strength, drawing in readers with its strong characterizations, vivid setting and realistic dialogue. Ages 10-up. (May)