An Enemy Among Them

""Sometimes people have to die,'' Margaret's brother tells her, ``so that the rest can live.'' A young German-American, Margaret supports the rebel cause in the American Revolutionary War but hates to see her brothers leave home. Eventually she falls in love with a prisoner quartered with her family, Christian, a German soldier hired by the British. While re-creating the battles at Trenton, Chadd's Ford and Stony Point from Christian's viewpoint (and reflecting on his loyalties), the authors show the effects of the war on Margaret's close-knit family. This is an absorbing historical romance, but though the characters and their times have color and life, the story is occasionally marred by inflated writing (her ``lament resonated through the anguished days'') and too-neat coincidences. Ages 10-14. (October)