Star Wind

When she returns home from summer camp, Camden Douglas finds that her best friend Mitch is running wtih a new group. They're followers of an older teen who calls himself WT-3 and tells the ""kidsters'' that ``grownies'' are ``double ungood'' bosses who give children no rights. WT-3 also shows them The Game, a consciousness-altering ritual that gives them the sensation of flying. Miffed at her busy parents, Camden plunges in but a series of nightmarish dreams reveal the truth. WT-3 is from a totalitarian world where an oppressive Word Tax is enforced by Word Police. While giving the children a simple slang, WT-3's been draining their brains of all they've learned. Although the allegorical dream world gets a bit didactic, this is a fine novel with surprising twists and a particularly astute portrayal of the allure and danger for young people of secret societies, cults and drugs. (10-up)