In 1963 Ellie's mother, Doris Day Dingman, was crowned the Bosetti Beauty at Mr. Bosetti's supermarket. This opening line sets the tone for Martin's sharp, tender story, told from the viewpoint of Ellie, 11, who is caught between love, shame, and fury when her self-obsessed mother eventually leaves their small-town home to search for stardom in New York. The Dingmans live on Witch Tree Lane with a knot of outcasts like themselves, and Ellie and her neighbor and best friend, Holly, are cruelly bullied at school, just as hate crimes threaten the adults on the street. There's also a strong sense of the times, including the furor when Kennedy is shot. There may be too much going on for one novel, but as in her Newbery Honor Book, A Corner of the Universe (2002), Martin takes on themes more common in YA fiction, bringing them close for middle-grade readers without oversimplifying any of the characters. The family story is unforgettable. The quiet surprise is that Doris may think she is the center of attention, but it's really Dad, who is beautifully drawn as he moves from the background to take charge of his kids and find home on his street. Like Ellie, he must let Doris go.

Ellie's cheaply glamorous, self-centered mother is desperate to break into show business, heedless of the consequences to her family. With her fluidly accessible writing style, Martin evokes family and school life in the early sixties to perfection and creates a number of nuanced characters to surround Ellie, her very ordinary yet compelling main character.

Sixth-grader Eleanor Roosevelt Dingman lives on the wrong side of the tracks in Spectacle, New York, in 1963. Bigotry abounds, and there are many acts of vandalism against the lone Jewish family and a pair of elderly women who live together. It's even worse at school, with Ellie and her best friend Holly the victims of endless bullying and hazing. But of most concern to Ellie is the future of her family. Her mother, Doris Day Dingman, is self-promoting, and totally self-absorbed. When she leaves to pursue her show-business dreams, Ellie is devastated, but understands that this outcome was inevitable. Martin has created a sensitive, sympathetic character in a setting rich with detail that place her firmly in the period. Occasional loose ends in the plot put this a step below her best work, but Martin's fans will recognize Ellie's emotional struggle and breathe a sigh of relief at the ending. (Fiction. 10-12)

Martin, who explored with such insight the themes of ostracism and family conflict in <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Belle Teal and <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">A Corner of the Universe, affectingly reexamines them in this third novel set in the 1960s. Eleanor ("Ellie") Roosevelt Dingman, a sixth-grade resident of Spectacle, N.Y., wrestles with her feelings about her family and neighborhood, which is filled with social misfits. ("Every time Ellie neared her street she was struck by two opposing feelings, and wasn't sure how her heart had room for both of them. She felt a tugging fondness for her small house and the four other houses on the street. And she felt a pang of embarrassment at being one of the people who lived on Witch Tree Lane.") Ellie's chief source of anxiety is her mother, Doris Day Dingman, who acts more like a beauty queen than a mother. Tension mounts as Doris becomes increasingly obsessed with becoming a famous actress and grows neglectful of her children. Around the time of Kennedy's assassination, she decides to leave her family to pursue her dream in New York City. Readers may find it unsettling that Ellie fails to make a significant connection with either parent. Her attitude toward her star-struck mother and remote father is as ambivalent at the end of the story as it is in the beginning. But Ellie shows fierce loyalty to her neighbors, especially her best friend, who becomes a target for cruel jokes at school. Her strength comes from her ability to move forward with her life. Ages 10-14. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Oct.)

Gr 4-8-A poignant story set in the 1960s that tells of a girl coming to accept her mother's inability to parent and to realize her own strength and separateness. Ellie Dingman, 11, has a beautiful mother who is always looking for her big break into show business. She has renamed herself Doris Day Dingman and insists that her children call her "Doris" rather than "Mom." Her immature delusions of grandeur in their small Hudson River Valley town are a source of deep embarrassment to Ellie, who is painfully aware of how cheap most people find Doris. She is often not home; much of the care of her younger siblings falls to Ellie, whose father works long hours. When mean girls target her best friend, Ellie and Holly try to be as inconspicuous as Doris is conspicuous. After President Kennedy is assassinated, the aspiring starlet realizes that life is short; she leaves the family, heading to New York City, where Ellie finds her months later, not living glamorously but working in a department store. Doris returns home only once, to gather all her things and move to Hollywood. Martin paints a well-articulated picture of the times, but it is her memorable child and adult characters that shine here. Like Hattie in A Corner of the Universe (Scholastic, 2002), Ellie is a perceptive and compassionate protagonist who ultimately comes into her own.-Connie Tyrrell Burns, Mahoney Middle School, South Portland, ME Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.