Let's Go, Gaels

In this awkward novella, LaBate attempts to recreate a tumultuous week in the life of a 12-year-old boy in 1964. In between worries about giving a speech in class and about what Patty Boyleson wrote about him in a slam book, and his anticipation of the league-championship basketball game, ""Jimbo"" makes time to do his chores and play with his retarded four-year-old sister, Peggy. But when Peggy suddenly dies in her sleep, Jimbo's world is turned upside-down. LaBate's labored, disjointed narrative reads something like a list of 1964 memorabilia and holds more appeal for adults who remember the era than for children. With so much period detail crammed into it, the story feels hollow and forced despite its serious undertones. The conscious but inconsistent effort to clip ""-ing"" suffixes also feels contrived (""She kinda looked like she was sleepin', "" Jimbo says, viewing Peggy at the wake). By the end, LaBate eases into a more comfortable pace, but many readers will have jumped ship long before. The pencil sketches, half of them horizontal views tipped in sideways, do little to enhance the tale. Ages 12-17. (May)