Crossing the Tracks

In this quiet yet resonant debut novel set in 1920s Missouri, 15-year-old Iris is sent to spend the summer in the country to be a companion to elderly Mrs. Nesbitt. Iris lost her mother at age six and was brought up by her distant father, a shoe salesman who is "a detail man in every way except one—the details of me." Initially indignant that she will be sent away while her father plans his wedding to a woman who Iris regards as shallow and grasping, Iris soon finds Mrs. Nesbitt and her physician son Avery to be sensitive, wise, and compassionate mentors as she experiences first love and a new tragedy. Mrs. Nesbitt is grieving her other son who died in WWI, and she and Iris learn to dust their "cellar of ghosts," freely expressing their deepest emotions to one another. A secondary plot about an abused girl is somewhat melodramatic, but readers will recognize, in Iris's story, the vicissitudes of coming-of-age and appreciate the depiction of a surrogate family that provides a warm and safe haven. Ages 12–up. (July)