THE LONG WAY HOME

In this third book about Sally and Emily Berg (The Christmas Revolution, 1987), Mom has had a mastectomy and is undergoing chemotherapy. To the surprise of everyone, hitherto difficult Emily proves to be the supportive twin, while nice Sally turns inexplicably angry, unsympathetic, and unreconciled to scrapping the family's usual vacation at the shore or to attending day camp, where she and Emily are separated for the first time. A new friend--a fat bus driver who's fired because she can't find the way, but whose inspired retellings of Shakespeare's plots lead to her being hired as drama coach--not only helps retrieve Sally's camp experience but also helps both girls begin to air their real fears. It's good to have a book about a cancer patient who will probably recover (the doctor tells the girls that 95% of breast-cancer patients have no disease five years later); in her usual competent fashion, Cohen neatly interweaves Sally's trials at camp with the more serious issue of a strong family coping with a frightening threat. A satisfying choice for readers of realistic fiction.