Next Stop, Nowhere

Beth, 14, hates leaving her posh Manhattan apartment to live with her divorced father, Pete, a Vermont sculptor as antimaterialistic as her wealthy mother, Clarissa, is a conspicuous consumer. Clarissa, pregnant and on her third marriage, has planned a trip abroad with her new husband, and the realization that she's become obsolete hurts Beth deeply. She also misses her one friend, a teenage Soviet Jewish emigre whose parents run a restaurant in Brooklyn. Meanwhile, dealing with self-righteous Pete requires a patience and fortitude Beth doesn't feel she has. Klass's (Rhino; The Bennington Stitch) character-driven novel covers a diverse terrain: an only child struggling with estranged parents and a blase stepfather; a new way of life; and an important first romance. Some story elements become repetitious (Pete's rigid, quasi-bohemian ways), artificially prolonging an essentially slim plot. Yet Beth's first-person narration contains insightful gems, and readers may also enjoy the relative sophistication of the structure, which alternates Beth's adventures in Vermont with flashbacks to episodes in New York. Ages 10-up. (Feb.)