The Rain Catchers

Grayling lives with her grandmother in a house full of women. Until now, the older woman's sensible, genteel rituals--afternoon tea, collecting honeysuckle-scented rainwater--have brought order and meaning to her granddaughter's childhood. Now Grayling is 14, and all that is changing: she must contend with a beloved family member's death, her own first romance and her mother's peremptory command to come live with her in San Francisco. The author of Rachel Chance has again created a cast of characters who are as memorable as they are quietly eccentric. Grayling's story is told with assurance and the Pacific Northwest setting is evoked in lucid, sensual writing. Ages 12-up. (Mar.)