It takes an intrepid juvenile writer to tackle the theme of logging these days. Not only do the polarized questions of forestry seem to attract idea-squelchers and book-suppressors of all stripes but even at the moment of composition, it must be difficult to let the story shine through the murk of issues. In her novel A Blue True Dream of Sky, Meredy Maynard negotiates this minefield with considerable aplomb.

Nickie lives in a one-industry West Coast town and her father is a logger. When some protesters arrive to demonstrate against the logging of a nearby island, Nickie crosses paths with the son of one of the activists. Her growing friendship with this young man, which must remain a secret from her family, and other tensions at home force Nickie finally to confront her own ambivalent feelings about clear-cutting. In the climactic scene, she rows to the island, climbs a huge ancient tree and ties herself high in its branches to protest the impending cut.This all works because Maynard can really write. The book isn’t a tract, the father is not an ogre, the protesters have their blind spots, and what we get is a convincing portrait of adolescent moral awakening. The scene of Nickie’s climb is crisp, precise, and shot through with irony because she got the techniques and equipment from her father.

In a subplot involving Nickie’s brother, who is in a coma following a car accident, we enter into the brother’s mind, and the imagery of those sequences suggests a writer with a talent for fantasy and poetry. The other sub-themes, Nickie’s albinism and her mother’s depression, are perhaps two elements too many and contribute to the occasional heaviness of this read. The story also bogs down slightly in its present-tense telling, a technique that cools and flattens the narrative voice. However, Nickie’s Romeo and Juliet dilemma and her passionate response to social issues are promising young adult themes and I look forward to seeing what Maynard writes next.