Quake!

Fourteen-year-old Frannie's reunion with Jennie, a friend she hasn't seen since their families moved apart five years ago, coincides with an event that is literally earthshaking-the 1989 quake that rocked Northern California. Frannie's parents and Jennie's divorced mother are attending a World Series baseball game in San Francisco when the earthquake begins, so that Frannie, her younger brother, Sidney and Jennie are on their own in coping with the crisis in Frannie's mountainside home. The three apply their knowledge and training toward minimizing damage and toward assisting neighbors. Cottonwood (Danny Ain't) presents a terrifying geological phenomenon in accessible you-are-there terms; his emphasis on preparedness will build his readers' skills rather than exploit their fears. Ages 10-up. (May)