Gateway CL

First-time novelist Robinson puts her experience as a Charleston Family Court attorney to good use in this wryly humorous yet emotion-packed story about a 13-year-old girl at the center of a bitter custody dispute. Margaret ""Mac"" Whitford doesn't understand why her self-absorbed parents are divorcing when they still love each other. However, Hal, a lawyer, and Mollie, a status-conscious ""whole environment designer"" (someone who turns ""a perfectly ordinary person with ordinary-to-tacky taste... into a `total design statement' "") aren't consulting Mac about their relationship or anything else, for that matter. Neither asks her about which parent she wants to live with, or stops to think that she might mind have her psychiatrist's notes entered into evidence. But Mac gets an unlikely champion in the person of court-appointed guardian Henrietta, an aged and eccentric Old Charlestonian, who in turn enlists the help of equally eccentric lawyer Drayton Guerard. Although Henrietta dies and divorce proceedings continue, Guerard's crafty maneuverings enable Mac to make a stand for herself. Gritty, thought-provoking and highly entertaining, this accomplished novel will gladden any reader who has been buffeted by familial upheaval. Ages 10-14. (Apr.)