Dear Mom, in Ohio for a Year

Cassie is miserable that she has to spend her sixth-grade year in rural Vermont with her vegetarian aunt and uncle while her single mother heads off to Ohio to finish college. Through unmailed letters to her mother and straight narrative, Cassie works through her hurt and anger as she tries to adjust to her relatives' '60s ways and to juggle friendships with the class gossip and a learning-disabled boy from a lower grade. Cassie's eventual resolution to appreciate positive changes arrives along with her recognition of her mother's well-meaning if poorly conceived plan to better their lives. A blend of persiflage and realism conveys Cassie's initial disorientation, but Stowe sidetracks the main story with contrived descriptions of a writing program and references to the aunt's fiery outbursts that are at odds with her earthy style. A light approach to a serious subject. Ages 8-12. (Sept.)