SORORITY GIRL

For once the characters, in this special for teen-age girls, are not flattened to one-dimension by the ""message"", which is a healthy condemnation of the high school sorority menace. Jean Burnaby, high school junior, is a thoroughly convincing, intelligent and attractive minx, who succumbs in the natural course of social experimentation, to the lure of cliquishness in the all-important struggle for security in high-school society. The exhilarating prospect of a bid to the Nightingales, a potent, envied sorority sisterhood, meant not only recognition by the most smoothly poised girls in the school and an assurance of dates, but a sense of belonging to a ready-made ""crowd"" which glittered in the very public eye of the high school majority. However, Jean's innate good sense and friendly outgoing nature soon prove vital factors in a growing dissatisfaction with her sisterhood, as the anti-deviationist mores of the Nightingales are responsible for her breaking with reliable, easy-going Jeff and dating a dull, demanding ""fraternity-acceptable"" senior; missing the fun of participating in extra-curricular activities because of sorority gains, and ""must"" meetings; and painful barriers between Jean and non-Nightingales. Jean's decision to resign from the sorority is not an easy one, and the author has not underestimated the anguish this very real and common problem may cause. Understanding, intelligent and a first-rate story.