MEMOIRS OF A BOOKBAT

Harper Jessup's parents' arguments and drinking stopped seven years ago when they began to work for F.A.C.E. (Family Action for Christian Education); a spiffy motor home replaced their old trailer and they took off cross-country to protest books that didn't support F.A.C.E. values. Harper, an avid reader, has maintained a compliant faáade while hiding the books she loves, but now that she's 14 she can no longer ignore her parents' bigotry and deceptions and rebels against their oppression. Interest in SF leads to friendship with Gray and even more frequent clashes with her parents. When they try to force her into a ``rescue'' at an abortion clinic, he helps her escape; she takes the bus back to Georgia to live with her grandmother. Lasky's obvious sympathies are sure to strike a responsive chord among the like-minded; her many specific references to children's literature enrich Harper's accessible first-person narrative. (Fiction. 12+)