MOLLY'S CUE

In this leisurely paced up-and-down novel about the cross-currents among artistic creation, artifice, reality and responsibility, a bad case of stage fright causes an aspiring actress to reassess her perspective about herself and her family. Molly Grumley, 14, has always been enthralled with the stories her grandmother, Grand, told about stars and stage life. It comes as quite a blow, then, when she learns after Grand’s death that the great lady had had no personal contact with the famous people about whom she spoke so engagingly. Suddenly—and not all that credibly—Molly’s confidence evaporates, and she finds herself unable to perform. As Molly endeavors to get back in the game, her best friend, a gifted sculptor, struggles to come to terms with her single mother’s pregnancy, while Molly’s uncle, a photographer who eschews responsibility, tries to grow up. Intermittently interesting but stuffed with too much thematic material, the story’s strength is the way the trapped adults articulate poignant truths about their lives; its weakness is that the children feel unreal, more vessels for the author’s ideas than fully developed characters. (Fiction. 12 & up)