As in her The Empress of Elsewhere, Nelson weaves in a fantasy element as an escape from unsettling realities the heroine must face, and here the author integrates the escapist threads to stunning effect. The novel opens like a movie script, with a "fade in" to a café called the Vanishing Point, where 12-year-old red-headed Ruby Miller, her six-year-old brother, Pete, and their mother wait for Ruby's father, who never shows up. Readers soon learn that the man disappeared five years ago, that the three then moved from Texas to Los Angeles, and that Ruby writes fantasy screenplays, which often belie her thoughts about the overwhelming realities of her life. The narrative unfolds through the perspectives of Ruby and a well-meaning troublemaker classmate named Big Skinny and his sidekick, Mouse. Ruby not only uses her screenwriting skills to fabricate heroic scenarios of what has detained her policeman father, but also as she imagines the Los Angeles River, which runs near her home, restored to its original glory. All of these threads twine together in surprising and inventive ways, as Ruby learns the truth about her father and begins taking steps to live in the here and now. Her relationship with Pete, especially well realized, allows Ruby to teach and to be taught by him; and Ruby's thaw where she once granted only an icy reception to Big Skinny and Mouse comes slowly and smoothly. Smart and funny, Ruby will surely have the audience lined up for her next starring role. Ages 10-12. (June)
