In the Quiet

First-time author Ross creates a sympathetic heroine in Sammy, the 11-year-old narrator who spends her days with her best friend, Bones, digging holes in neighboring yards. Sammy's nuanced narration reveals to readers, before the heroine's own realization, that the treasures the two girls unearth--colored glass, arrowheads, pieces of jewelry--only point to what Sammy really wants: something magical that can somehow reconnect her with her recently killed mother. Among her fully realized characters, Ross creates a loving but clueless father as well as Sammy's estranged Aunt Constance, a well-known psychic whose instinctive ways of caring for her niece begin to fill a void. When her aunt gives Sammy half a photograph, the girl's quest becomes more focused; Sammy thinks that if she can recover the missing half of the picture, maybe she will feel whole again. The history of the protagonist's town (reputedly built on sacred ground) proves to be as alluring as some of its endearingly eccentric residents, including cranky Mrs. Duncan, an elderly lady who holds an old grudge against Aunt Constance, and Mr. Gold, a library director who is always eager to examine the girls' findings. This intimate novel offers enough surprises and buried secrets to keep readers turning pages and anticipating Ross's next novel. Ages 8-12. (Mar.)