Come Away with Me

A dreamer with an infectious sense of humor, 12-year-old Moe is the likable heroine of this first volume in the promising Heartland series. Lawlor (Addie Across the Prairie) sets the tale in a Wisconsin town in the summer of 1910, a period filled with minor calamities for the true-to-life McDonohugh family. Moe can take credit for the mishaps: although she has only the noblest of intentions, her plans invariably backfire-with results that will entertain the reader. Her father's expensive wax mannequin melts after she creates a special display for it in the sweltering front window of his dry-goods store; she summons a swarm of bees, which then attack her older sister; and her storytelling encourages her younger siblings to hide a valuable item--her visiting cousin's glass eyeball. Effectively conveying the changing times, Lawlor depicts Moe's mother's determination to be both ""sensible"" and thoroughly modern, a conflict that culminates in the novel's humorous concluding scenario, which has the family taking a disastrous camping trip in its brand-new Model-T, the first automobile in town. Take to the Sky, a follow-up to this fresh and funny novel, is due in September. Ages 8-11. (July)