A TASTE OF SMOKE

Caitlin, 13, treasures the intimacy of an annual camp-out alone with her sister. This time, she's devastated to discover that Pam is giving all her attention to a young man she met during her first year at college. Pam has arranged to meet Alex at the museum commemorating the disastrous Hinckley, Minnesota, fire of 1894. When he shows up just after she's seen the museum film, Caitlin has a terrifying vision of the fire and hears the desperate cries of an orphan boy who died in it. Neither Pam nor Alex gives her story credence; but after days of becoming more at odds with Pam, and of repeated glimpses of the oddly dressed ``Frank''—who she's forced to admit is the orphan's ghost after she rides a bike through him—Alex confesses that he, too, has been plagued by the persistent spirit, who's now seeking comfort elsewhere because Alex is preoccupied with Pam. The prospect that Frank will haunt her forever grows more appalling when Caitlin realizes (after finding him in a toilet stall she'd planned to use) that he wants to be with her every second; in the end— unwittingly but courageously—she sets him to rest by her response to his cries. In Bauer's capable hands, the ghost story receives added depth from its interaction with present-day characters. Each sister is hurt by the other's unwillingness to hear about recent changes in her life; Frank makes an intriguing manifestation of their frustration. Well crafted and entertaining. (Fiction. 10-14)