Lurie, April. Brothers, boyfriends & other criminal minds.

LURIE, April. Brothers, boyfriends & other criminal minds. Random House, Delacorte. 291 p. c2007 0-385-73124-9. $15.99. JS *

When a story makes me laugh out loud, I love it. And so, I love this novel, written by the author of Dancing in the Streets of Brooklyn, which is set in the 1940s. This family story takes place in Brooklyn in 1977 and in some ways parallels Lurie's own experiences living in a neighborhood filled with crime bosses. (Her parents wanted a safe neighborhood for their three kids, and oddly, there's no street crime in such communities.) The narrator's name is April, like the author's, and she has an older brother who is an athlete, an actor, a good student, and perilously in love with a daughter of one of the crime bosses. April is the middle child, often babysitting for her precocious younger brother, longing for the attention of a street musician she sees in the park--the attractive bad boy. April has a best friend and confidante, and they are asked to accompany one of the neighborhood boys, Larry, as he starts 9th grade with them. Why? Well, Larry is a special kid (on the autism spectrum), needing special education, and he is the beloved son of their neighbor Salvatore "Soft Sal" Luciano. Larry loves to play the drums and drums on any surface he can find. Fortunately, he is a talented musician and is asked to join the band of the aforementioned street musician, Dominick, object of April's lust. The plot gets ever more convoluted in a marvelous kind of way, and it's comedic that April's older brother Matt and his forbidden love are starring in a production of Romeo and Juliet. It isn't so funny when Matt is beaten nearly to death by the thugs of his girlfriend's father. Neither is it funny when Dominick hurts April when he betrays her devotion. Unlike Romeo and Juliet, however, the principal characters are alive and well at the end of the novel, a bit the worse for wear, but together and looking ahead to the next stage of their lives.

Lurie gets all the conversations right, especially the family interchanges, just as she writes so accurately about the feelings between siblings, and family life in general. The neighborhood dramas are amusing at times and scary at others, but they do ring true throughout. April is finding her own voice and she is one of YA fiction's most memorable narrators. Claire Rosser, KLIATT

J--Recommended for junior high school students. The contents are of particular interest to young adolescents and their teachers.

S--Recommended for senior high school students.

*--The asterisk highlights exceptional books.