Grace

This novel is based on the true story of Grace Darling, who lived a simple life by the sea until her participation in a daring ocean rescue made her famous throughout Victorian Britain. Grace's renown attracts myriad fan letters, an exhausting stream of sightseers and portrait painters, stet comma and numerous requests for personal souvenirs. In addition, Grace becomes a woman of some means, as great sums of money are raised on her behalf. All adore the unassuming heroine--all but the local villagers, who resent the fact that her fame has overshadowed the rescue efforts by their lifeboat crew. The author's authentically old-fashioned voice, spiced with intriguing bits of dialect, produces an appropriately briny atmosphere. This somewhat daunting style, however, makes the novel's opening chapters slow going. Advanced readers who accommodate these rather sedate cadences will find in Grace an exploration of the nature and consequences of celebrity on a par with Avi's Nothing but the Truth . The later chapters, which detail Grace's struggles to bring dignity to what is often a peculiar, alienating role, are particularly gripping--and make for timely reading in this celebrity-obsessed era. Ages 12-up. (June)