JUST FOR FUN: A Collection of Original Humorous Stories
By
The seven lightweight stories written for this collection range from Lloyd Alexander's once-upon-a-time domestic fantasy about Mother Holly's mischievous cat (a maverick perhaps from The Town Cats, above) to ""Jack and the Bean Futures,"" a wisecracking stand-up comic routine by Alfa-Betty Olsen and Marshall Efron. Most are relatively thin projections of familiar contemporary situations--with or without a touch of the fantastic. Thus Sidney Offit's Sam Orlinski wins his patents' acceptance of his invisible pet dog; Marilyn Sachs' jealous sister discovers that her parents' seeming favoritism toward her brother is by way of compensation for her superior talents; and Marjorie Weinman Sharmat's young heroine's big fear is of being caught rewriting her mother's gabby notes to her school. Overall, they're a cut above what you'll find in the children's magazines, handily compiled for school bus stop or station break dipping.