SUNLIGHT VALLEY

Set on the cattle ranch (currently without cattle) that her parents convert for dudes in order to pay their mortgage, this is a flat, arid novel of an isolated Western girl's 13th summer. Becky seems a nice enough girl but not especially interesting; her growing tolerance of the dudes (who include some Eastern boys her age who are into pot and protest), her concern about losing the ranch, and her uneasiness over the tension between her parents are all real enough but unenlivened by any real suspense or telling insights -- which makes it rather a long dry summer.