JERICHO

GrandMin, 12-year-old Angela's great-grandmother, has lost track of the present. When Angela keeps her company to relieve her mother and Gram, GrandMin stares vacantly, forgets who Angela is, and reiterates the most basic questions. Gram is at the end of her strength, and Angela's family is here to paint GrandMin's house and help think things through. Bored and lonely, Angela yearns for home and pins her dreams on Tom Ferris, a local boy. Meanwhile, alternating sections present GrandMin's youth. Raised by her sister Delia after their mother's death, Arminta (``Min'') lost her, too, after Delia bore an out-of-wedlock child; Min then lost the young man she loved to her less amiable sister, Lucy. Sensitive readers will pick up both the contrasts and the parallels between Min's life and Angela's. Most conspicuous is Angela's sense of betrayal when she sees Tom kissing another girl, though the import is far less shattering than Min's loss. What holds attention here is the delicate evocation of two well- spaced generations. This perceptive and beautifully written book is a poignant reminder that even when all that remains of their existence is headstones and photos, the people of previous eras once had lives as full as our own. (Fiction. 10+)