FOOL'S HILL

Again, Hall (Dixie Storms, 1990) affectionately re-creates a summer in the South without glamorizing the opportunities (or lack of them) for teens who live there. Libby, 14, believes herself a ``faller''—one who is made fun of by the world's ``laughers'': i.e, she's an outsider. Two new girls, sisters Rosalyn and Linda, open up her vistas by including her in their circle; the three slickly infiltrate the laughers, though Libby continues to hear echoes of her father's admonishments about reputations and keeping her name untarnished. But the more she sees of the in-group, the closer Libby comes to realizing the truth of her father's words—especially when Rosalyn targets Troy, object of Libby's crush, for herself. These familiar machinations (including a cousin's out-of-wedlock pregnancy) are carried out in a euphonious first-person narration, leaving no doubt of the poignancy of likable Libby's low self-esteem and the multilayered blossoming of her belief in herself; her every impulse is understandable and real. A tender, appealing growing- up story. (Fiction 11+)