Hear the Wind Blow

The author of Miracle at Clements Pond returns with a second book about life in a small town and the role one person plays in bringing the community together. Isadora, the narrator, loves her best friend Maybelle, who is good and kind to everyone, even Haskell Moore, who taunts the teacher, principal and all the kids. He calls Isadora ``curtain dancer'' because she wraps herself up in flowing curtain panels and pretends to be Isadora Duncan, for whom she is named. Maybelle reveals that she has had a sign from God that it is time for her to be ``saved,'' but the baptismal waters of the river are icy and exacerbate her already sickly condition. Months later, she dies. Pendergraft weaves the results of Maybelle's influence through the story of Isadora's own blossoming personalityshe learns not go along with the gang and confronts her parents about her love of dancing. The portrait of this town is a rich, full one, replete with the witty, winning details that characterized the author's first book. Ages 10-up. (May)