A LONG TIME AGO TODAY

Twelve-year-old California girl Dilly Howell bears a grudge against her mother for dying six years earlier. Even more strongly, she resents her father's insistence on practically enshrining her mother's memories and traditions. The worst demand is the annual six-week summer trip to her mother's family farm in the Adirondacks. It's entirely unbearable this year because of the discovery of a letter written to Dilly by her mom just before her death. Can't she just be left alone to grow up? Narrator Julie Dretzin is commendably believable as an emotional adolescent. The character's confused frustration and grief are evident but not annoying. N.M.C. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine [Published: JUN/ JUL 04]