Bryant, Jen. The trial, a novel.

BRYANT, Jen. The trial, a novel. Random House, Knopf. 169p. c2004. 0-375-82752-8. $14.95. JS

This is Bryant's first novel for YAs; she chooses the verse format to tell how one girl and one town are transformed by the event of the trial of Bruno Richard Hauptmann, convicted as the kidnapper and killer of the Lindbergh baby in the early 1930s. The narrator, Katie Flynn, lives with her mother in Flemington, NewJersey. She is described as 12 years old, but seems to be much older. She certainly is highly intelligent and independent. Her mother's brother is a reporter for the local newspaper, and just before the trial, he is in an accident and cannot use his hand to write--so he enlists Katie's help as his assistant. She gets permission to leave school for six weeks, and she attends the trial, taking notes for her uncle and observing the proceedings, offering her own opinions of the lawyers, Hauptman, Lindbergh, the jury, and so on. Alongside the story of the trial is her friendship with Mike, another resilient teenager. He is trying to cope with a difficult life caring for his drunken father, and Katie is one of the few who believe in him.

Bryant grew up in Flemington, but to prepare for this novel, she did a great deal of research, explained in an epilogue and in an author's note. Frankly, I wish she had made Katie a 16-year-old, which would be more believable and would help sell this book to older YAs. The poetry is more demanding than many of the other novels told in verse. It is filled with images as Katie imagines the crime itself and recounts the trial and her life--even as she describes her surroundings: "Evening comes early, spreading / its ink over our town / The thermometer reads twenty-five degrees." An unusual, demanding story. Claire Rosser, KLIATT