ANGELS TURN THEIR BACKS

On her first day at a new school, Addy, 15, has a panic attack and races out; without understanding what is happening to her, she finds herself unable to leave the safety of her home. Everything in her world first changed when her parents separated and Addy moved from Toronto to Winnipeg with her mother. Now Addy convinces her mother (a bit too easily) to let her home-school; while she spends the days in the confines of an apartment house, she meets new and strangely fascinating people, and attempts to unravel a mystery of the former owner of the house. The atmospheric, introspective prose moves slowly, as does the plot, but readers gain a realistic sense of Addy’s state of mind; a sensitive portrait of a troubled girl coping with abrupt changes emerges. The mystery of the agoraphobic needlepoint artist who died in the house bogs down Addy’s story; it is the least compelling element, relayed mostly in the screeching taunts of a very talkative parrot. (Fiction. 12-14)