This week another generation gets the chance to read Lois Duncan. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers has redesigned the covers and the author herself has updated the text to add things like CDs and digital photography and cell phones to her novels, most of which were published in the 70s and 80s.
I recently read, oddly for the first time (I think -- I read so much LD as a tween it's hard to say) SUMMER OF FEAR, in which a Rachel's home is invaded by her cousin Julia -- a cousin who has recently lost her parents and to whom Rae is meant to act as a sister. Everyone seems to love Julia. She is charming and sweet and when Rae's dog attacks her cousin, her parents don't hesitate to exile him to the backyard. Rachel sees what the others don't see though -- there is an evil about Julia, and Rae is determined to figure out what she's really up to. And when Julia steals her boyfriend -- a boy who Rachel has known since childhood -- it's the last straw. Rae begins to suspect that Julia is practicing witchcraft, and when she starts to find evidence that she might be right, Rachel begins to fear for her life.
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