SANDY FRANCES DUNCAN, NOW LIVING on Gabriola Island, has written a realistic young adult novel, listen to Me, Grace Kelly (Kids Can $4.95), a gripping tale of mysterious revelations and psychological depth. Listen to Me opens with 12-year old Jessica staying with elderly Agatha, a family friend, at an Ontario summer cottage in 1956. Jess's father died when she was eight; her memories of him and their relationship are fragmentary and repressed. As details of his life and death emerge over the summer, Jess confronts nightmarish fears and phantasms rising from her unconscious and linked to her father. The 75-year-old Agatha is a spunky, Emily Dickinson-quoting individualist; intelligent and non-conforming. She chose to live a single life during World War II when this was most uncommon. Jess's middle-aged social worker mother is strong and loving. The physical warmth and emotional bond between mother and daughter is deeply moving an anomaly in young adult fiction. The pattern of growth and change across three generations of women provides a feminist subtext to the novel's surface narrative. The issue of sexual harassment is also explored as Jessica is emotionally and physically threatened by a teenage boy. She fights victimization and confronts her mother with vague memories of her father touching her in bed when she was a child. The final explanation of her father's illness as Alzheimer's Disease and his removal from the family is bleak and poignant, but the question of possible sexual abuse is left unresolved (or blocked) in Jess's memory and the text. This psychological study of family dynamics and the mind struggling to heal itself is accompanied by more typical young adolescent activities: close female friendships, horse riding and imaginary confidences with the perfect 50's movie star ideal of feminine beauty, Grace Kelly: Although dense in sub-plot and surrealistic dream/ memory sequences, the writing style is fresh and invigorating, full of real and unpredictable adolescent energy, humour and emotion. More new kidstuff, in brief: Animals, mythical and real, continue to fascinate young readers. The trickster Raven learns important lessons about greed and gluttony in Anne Cameron's Raven Goes Berrypicking and Raven and Snipe (Harbour, both $5.95). Another coastal bird, Cyril the Seagull (Nightwood $14.95) learns to overcome seasickness to save a friend. An elephant also learns the importance of friends in Hugo Makes a Friend (Hugo Publishing $5.95), one of a series of Hugo books by Bob Schimpf. For young mystery fans there's Jim Heneghan's The Case of the Marmalade Cat (Scholastic $3.95) about a kids' detective agency set in Vancouver's Granville Market; plus Island Feud (Irwin $9.95) by Marian Crook, another in her Susan George mystery series. Boys will be backhoe operators, sometimes with startling results as Howard White relates in Patrick and the Backhoe (Nightwood $14.95). Marilyn Halvorson is back with another young adult novel, Brothers and Strangers (Irwin $9.95) telling the story of a blind girl who discovers freedom through horse riding. Teachers have a new resource for dealing with racism in schools. Pacific Educational Press at UBC has completed a six-year project, Alternatives to Racism, with a dozen new books designed to introduce children to the wonders of other cultures. Titles include More Than Meets the Eye and Apple's not the Only Pie. For Native students, Don Sawyer and Art Napoleon have compiled the NESA Activities Handbook Vol. 2 (Pulp $14.95) designed to get students actively involved in Native culture and political well-being.--by Judith Saltman

[BCBW 1991] "Kidlit";