THE DAY IT RAINED FOREVER

In one of the better entries in the ``Once Upon America'' series, young Christina and her family are among the survivors of the disastrous 1889 flood that occurred when an inadequate dam, built to provide fishing for the millionaire members of a local club, loosed a 70-foot wall of water on the mill town of 12,000 people. Christina's home is safely out of the flood's path, but her older brother is among those trying to warn others of the danger, while her mother—visiting Uncle Herbert's fiancÇe, Lenora—is caught in the swirling waters and survives after a harrowing adventure in which she saves an unidentified newborn; Lenora and Herbert are both lost. The story closes with the poignant acceptance of baby Hope by Christina, who has feared that her mother imagines that Hope replaces Christina's beloved baby sister Eva, who has recently died. Gross deftly sketches a believable cast and neatly interweaves the flood's events, issues surrounding it, and their private tragedies. Fine beginning historical fiction. Illustrations not seen. (Fiction. 8-12)