A Blessing in Disguise

The witty and sassy-but sadly innocent-voice of narrator Zambia Brown instantly grabs readers' attention in this concluding volume of the trilogy begun in The Secret of Gumbo Grove and Thank You, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.! For the past eight years, ever since her mother entered the hospital where she remains even now, 12-year-old Zambia has been raised by straitlaced Uncle Lamar and Aunt Limo in ``itsy-bitsy, countrified, do-nothing Deacons Neck'' on the South Carolina coast. She daydreams about moving in with her slick, shady-dealing father, Snake, who lives with ``a lady named Sissy'' and their 15-year-old twin daughters. When Snake opens another of his ``boss'' nightclubs on Zambia's block, Lamar, Limo and others in their African American community are up in arms. But Zambia is dazzled-longing desperately for a shred of love from Snake, she stops just short of self-destruction in her attempts to attain it. Snappy dialogue convincingly suggests these characters' love of life, against which Tate artfully, and disturbingly, juxtaposes darker feelings-``I'd give anything to see a shooting,'' Zambia declares-and real tragedy. Ages 8-12. (Feb.)