Chive

Terry Caldwell doesn't like it when his mother befriends Chive, a destitute boy who helps her out at the supermarket. The way Chive talks makes Terry think ``he'd been watching too many Beverly Hillbillies reruns,'' and Terry can't help being suspicious of Chive's homespun helpfulness. But, guided by his mother's example, Terry soon feels compassion for Chive, who is almost certainly homeless and seems to be harboring some weighty secrets. Terry's story alternates with Chive's as first-time author Barre divides the narration between the two boys. As Terry chronicles the history of his friendship with Chive, Chive recounts a series of flashbacks detailing his family's disastrous loss of their farm, their plunge into urban poverty, his mother's and sister's deaths in a housing-project fire and subsequent calamities. Like a child in a Victorian story, however, Chive is as virtuous as he is beleaguered, and he manages to beat the callously cruel system: he and his father provide shelter and food for the city's homeless children. It's commendable that Barre should tackle so doughty a theme, but her characters are too simple and her resolutions too easy to inspire readers or otherwise help them address an urgent social issue. Ages 10-14 . (Oct.)