I Remember Valentine

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

The Depression forces the unnamed 11-year-old narrator and her parents to move from a comfortable home in Marietta, Ohio, to a small flat in the poorer section of town. There, the girl's middle-class assumptions are challenged by her next-door neighbors, the Harts, a larger-than-life family who could have stepped from the pages of Tobacco Road. Lacey and Big, with their 12-year-old twins, Black and Valentine, and brain-damaged son Broken gamely survive on a mixture of home-grown truths and natural grit. The narrator and Valentine soon become best friends, and when Valentine takes a summer job as mother's helper to an upper-class family, both girls are plunged into an adult intrigue and barely avoid becoming accessories to a murder. Shorn of its raunchy dialogue, the book's lively plot and colorful characters might appeal to young adults. Mature readers will find the story obvious and the ``lovable'' Harts merely grotesque. (June 8)