Surveys routinely show interests of young readers are as varied as the readers themselves. Some like nonsense or adventure, others choose history or "real" fiction that contains relevant issues they face today. Below is a sample of some of the new novels for readers grades five and older that reflect that diversity. But each has winsome protagonists that could be the "kid next door."
STEPHEN FAIR. Tim Wynne-Jones. 218 pages. DK Publishing. $15.95. Stephen Fair at age 11 records his brother's nightmares and family secrets in a notebook, Dreamcatcher. Marcus becomes depressed and leaves home, and Stephen cannot understand why his mother will not talk about it.Now 15 himself, the same age his brother was when he ran away, Stephen starts with the same kind of night terrors that reach inside his psyche. These, too, he records in the journal. He fears that it is a web he can't remove from himself. Hesketh, a diviner - or a practitioner of "applied kinesiology," according to his mother's description of her - tries to assist and puts the fragments from the Dreamcatcher together.
This is a psychological novel with a cast of interesting characters, such as Stephen's friend Virginia, who videotapes everything; Stephen's sidekick, Dom; and grandmother Nan, whose eccentric ways make more sense to Stephen that just about anyone else.
"Stephen Fair" is a gripping story with an unpredictable ending.
MAURA'S ANGEL. Lynne Reid Banks. 150 pages. Avon Books. $14. "Maura wasn't afraid of the signs of violence and anger all around her. She should have been, perhaps, but she wasn't. She was too used to it. She took it for granted.
Maura is a 12-year-old in war-torn Northern Ireland. She had grown up with war around her and had known nothing else. She saw the soldiers daily. Her older brother had been arrested and taken to prison. She explained: "It's to do with religion . . . it's the Catholics against the Protestants, the IRA against the UDA, the Provos against the UVF . . . it's all mixed up."
One day after a bomb scare, Maura finds a companion who looks remarkably like her. It's Maura's guardian angel, who helps her find the ability to understand and tolerate her life.
First published in Great Britain in 1977, "Maura's Angel" has been renewed to meet the interest in people's personal guardian angels. Lynne Reid Banks is the renowned author of "Indian in the Cupboard" and lives in Dorset, England.
MY MOM MARRIED THE PRINCIPAL. Margaret Bechard. 168 pages. Viking. $14.99. Just imagine what it would be like to be in eighth grade and have your mother marry the principal of the school! Not only is there talk about what special favors can be "bought" by being nice to Jonah, but it would also be difficult to be just yourself without the word getting back to the office.
Jonah joins the drama club and finds Katherine Chang, the image of his dreams.
Just when he thinks things are working out, life gets complicated. Caught between being a kid in the young grades and not quite being old enough for romance, Jonah thinks there is no hope, but suddenly he finds lots of options.
Bechard has definitely listened to young people as they develop problems with school and relationships. Students of Jonah's age will find "My Mom Married the Principal" relevant and amusing, while others who know the hazards that lie ahead will find a giggle a minute.
MEMORIES OF CLASON POINT. Kelly Sonnenfeld. 165 pages. Dutton. $16.99. The setting is a neighborhood in the Bronx in 1928 that is composed of recently arrived immigrants from different ethnic groups. Each person knows his place and plays his role in the expected manner.
"The women had their roles to play - mama, wife, daughter, housekeeper, nurse and confidant. These were a full-time job . . . The women talked to each other about food and their children's health problems but kept family troubles to themselves. . .
"The men went to work, brought home their wages, read their newspapers, listened to the radio, did yard work and a little gardening. They talked . . . about business ventures, the stock market, local politics, the state of the world, and their luck in having come so far since the old country . . ."
"The street was the children's domain." It consisted of snow piles, old brooms serving as bats for the spring ball teams, a regulation Boy Scout pocketknife, a piece of clotheslines for jumping ropes and waiting for summer vacation.
While the roles were well-defined, the date of Oct. 19, 1929, made a difference to everyone in the neighborhood. Soon after, the bottom dropped out of the economy. Fathers were suddenly without work, mothers went to the store for one potato instead of a bag and often there were no potatoes at all.
The author and her parents were living the American dream when the disaster came. Her father began making whiskey in the basement of their tenement. He rationalized the illegal work by claiming that he was merely carrying on a family tradition started by his grandfather in Hungary in 1813.
Because they could make the payments on the home, a growing number of friends and family members, especially from overseas, became part of the household.
"Memories of Clason Point" is a series of reminiscences of grandparents and other relatives, "strange people" who came to buy her father's wares and the lean years of the Depression. It chronicles her father's arrest and release and the judge who became a regular visitor to the house. It tells of repossessed furniture, raids on the homes of Clason Point (other homes were also manufacturing illegal products) and life as it teetered on the edge of dark and miserable times.
Throughout, the author tells both of her mother's fear and disgrace and of her father's optimism as he "faced the future as he wished it to be."
"Memories of Clason Point" is a slice of history that may have more meaning to adults than to a young reader. However, it will give insight into what many youngsters' grandparents witnessed during the Depression years.