Possum Summer

First-time author Blom effectively evokes her novel's contemporary rural Oklahoma setting and creates a credibly feisty protagonist in narrator P, but the book suffers from uneven pacing and excessive melodrama. P's father, a soldier away at war, leaves the 11-year-old in charge of their cattle dog, Blackie, as well as chores on the farm. When Blackie kills a possum, P rescues its baby and adopts it, despite her father's ban on pets. In laborious detail, Blom describes how P cares for the baby possum, carrying it under her shirt in a sling fashioned from her older sister's sports bra. The story's tempo picks up as trouble erupts: Blackie is struck by a truck after P lets him out of his kennel, and the vet must euthanize him; P discovers that one of her father's prized cows is rabid and must be shot; and P accidentally shoots herself while encouraging her possum to return to the wild, at which point her grandmother falls and breaks her hip. The many calamities diminish the emotional impact and authenticity of P's story. Final art not seen by PW. Ages 8%E2%80%9312. (June)