THE NEWCOMER

If Quiet Rebel provided ""a shallow answer to a profound question"" (1967, p. 1059, J-377), The Newcomer offers an equally facile solution to an even less likely situation. How many small towns in New England have no high school and no arrangement for eligible students to commute to the nearest? That's Wendy Clark's problem but Sandy Wilson, visiting the community for the summer, makes it her own, manages in an afternoon to speak with everyone concerned--especially the opposing selectmen--and arrange for the necessary changes of heart. This begins near the following Christmas and flashes back to the summer scene-sation with the sixteen-year-old midwesterner do-gooding the community. But there are so many questions unanswered: why doesn't the target selectman foresee the same predicament for his own children? why should Sandy's parents assist in her scheme after their first reaction--annoyance that she has disobeyed their instructions not to meddle--is so sound? Too good to be true, too fast to be convincing, and all the adults are pushovers.