Rally ’Round Green

In Christie’s next installment in the ongoing Green series, there’s no rest for the weary townspeople of Green, La., after a devastating tornado. An educational consultant sashays into town to close down Green High, whose students aren’t meeting state benchmarks. Consultant Marcus Hillburn has a very willing helper in Priscilla Robinson, a snake-like new administrator at the high school. Meanwhile, newlyweds Lois Barker Craig and her husband, Chris, a teacher and coach at the high school, are having their home rebuilt; a high school student sustains a serious injury; and a few bad pennies depicted in previous books return to the action. Christie has developed a sweet community, with dogs that can be depended on for comic relief and assorted quirky townspeople with varying histories, squarely in the vein of Jan Karon’s Mitford or Charlene Baumbich’s Partonville. Christie is capable of more depth—there is some subtle and believable redemption taking place—but Green fans will rally to this next edition for newspaper owner Lois and her smalltown friends. (Nov.)