Newbery Honor author Brooks (The Moves Make the Man) presents seven vignettes that expose the complex nature of Dolores, an uncommonly beautiful and bright girl who evolves from an outgoing, trusting seven-year-old to a cynical, seemingly friendless teenager. The most dramatic tales open and close the volume. In the first, her older brother, Jimmy, perhaps the most winning and fully fleshed-out character in the novel, foils two women's attempt to kidnap Dolores in the Wal-Mart where he works; in the finale, Dolores, now 16, escapes from the car of a man who tries to rape her in New York City. Set during the years between these two incidents, the other stories offer insight into her relationships with her divorced parents (she adores her father but has a mutually hostile rapport with her mother) and with peers (a loner in sixth grade, she becomes the target of classmates' vicious rumors and, in high school, defies the dictates of the bossy head cheerleader after joining the squad). In another standout entry, Dolores attends a party at which a macho athlete attempts to make the moves on her. Disgusted, she takes refuge in the garage, where a gentle, shy boy finds her and the two share a first kiss. Brooks shapes a kind of cubist portrait of Dolores by piecing together various individuals' perspectives of her; she remains sufficiently aloof and elusive even from her mother's point of view. Through his portrayal of Dolores, the author inventively creates the literary equivalent of the adolescent experience: a heightened intelligence, a raised consciousness and a flurry of contradictions. Ages 10-up. (Apr.)
