Twilight in Grace Falls

Eleven-year-old Dasie Jenson wishes everything could stay the same forever in her small town, but she cannot will away the onslaught of changes that arrive at the end of summer. First her brother Sam leaves home to join the Navy. Next, the lumber mill, which employs most of Grace Falls' population (including Dasie's father), shuts its doors for good. Panic mounts, and one by one, families Dasie has known all of her life put their homes up for sale. Readers will share Dasie's feelings of loss as she realizes her inability to reverse the tide. Her sentiments are echoed in other characters: the hard-nosed teacher who softens in the face of disaster; Dasie's father, who stubbornly refuses to relocate even as he determines that his children need to leave to build futures for themselves; and cousin Warren, who wants nothing in life except to be a logger in Grace Falls. Writing with enormous compassion, Honeycutt (Ask Me Something Easy) captures the spirit of a dying community confronting financial ruin, interweaving her chapters with play-like snippets of old-timers' conversations at Early's Saw Shop. The ending is marred somewhat by its determined bittersweetness: Warren commits suicide, and Dasie and Sam rather too quickly turn this tragedy into an occasion for reaffirming their own life choices. This development aside, the narrative pays a moving tribute to a disappearing way of life. Ages 11-14. (Apr.)