Step by Wicked Step

A sleepover in a reputedly haunted house becomes a night of revelations and storytelling for five classmates in this lightly therapeutic tale. Fine (Flour Babies, 1994, etc.) sets a deliciously spooky scene: On a dark and stormy night, Colin, Rob, Claudia, Ralph, and Pixie discover a hidden door in their gloomy quarters, and behind that a dusty diary titled "Richard Clayton Harwick - My Story. Read and Weep." They settle down for a dramatic reading and hear a bitter tale of the death of a father, his usurpation by a hated stepfather, and the subsequent demise of Harwick's entire family. This sparks the children - each with a very different experience - to tell about their own divorced or absent parents, of coping with siblings and stepsiblings, shuttling among various residences, meeting new adults, living with or letting out resentments. Offering a wide variety of alternative living arrangements, plus a selection of apothegms - "Everyone's story is different," "Misery isn't a baton in a relay race . . . you can't get rid of it just by passing it on" - Fine doesn't conceal her agenda or create much of a plot, but gives her characters distinct voices and attitudes and helps readers understand that wounds do heal, if allowed to. (Kirkus Reviews)