TOMORROW RIVER

TOMORROW RIVER by Lesley Kagen

From the book flap:

During the summer of 1968 in Rockbridge County, Virginia, eleven-year-old Shenandoah Carmody's mother diappeared.  Her twin sister, Woody, stopped speaking, and her once-loving father slipped into a mean drunkenness unbefitting a superior court judge.

As the first anniversary of their mother's disappearance nears, her father's threat to send Woody away and his hints at an impending remarriage spur a desperate Shenny - who was named for the Shenandoah Valley - to find her mother before it's too late.

While struggling to get her mute twin to reveal what she knows about the night their mother vanished, Shenny is ultimately swept up in a series of heartbreaking events that will force her to face the painful truth about herself and her family.

Loved, loved, loved this book!  This is the second book by Ms. Kagen that I've read (WHISTLING IN THE DARK was the first).  Again, she writes in the voice of a young girl.  Shenny is bound and determined to find out what happened to her mother.  She knows that her sister saw something and she needs to know what that was in order to locate their mother.

Ms. Kagen has young girls down to a T.  Shenny's smart, funny, and full of spunk.  I love this description she gives of the town bad boy:

The boy's got red hair.  Not that Howdy Doody kind that's not so bad.  Remmy's is more like Clarabelle's and he's just as honking dumb.  The kid could throw himself on the ground and miss.  (p. 129)

Absolutely love that last sentence!

Here's a link to an interview with Ms. Kagen that I found on BermudaOnion's blog.  Ms. Kagen has made it to my list of authors whose books I'll buy as soon as I hear about them.  Next up, LAND OF A HUNDRED WONDERS and GOOD GRACES.