GET ON OUT OF HERE, PHILIP HALL

After all the success and glory reported in Philip Hall Likes Me . . . (1974), Beth has developed such a swelled head that she stands right up in a packed church hall to receive the coveted leadership award. But the prize is given instead to Philip Hall; and Beth, humiliated, rushes from the stage and spends the night hiding in the woods. To recover her status, Beth stages a big parade with a relay race between Philip's Tiger Hunters and her girls' club, the Pretty Pennies. The day's a success, with the whole town of Pocahontas, Arkansas, turning out; but Beth flubs the race for her team and the disgruntled Pennies elect a new president. That's when Beth, ridiculed and despondent about her leadership ability, decides to move in with Grandma over at Walnut Ridge and become a follower. Well, of course Beth can't help stirring up some action in the new town too, and by the time she returns home two months later she has lost her conceit but also come to realize that she is a natural-born leader who gets things done where others don't. It's all a bit overdrawn (especially the whole population's involvement in all this kid stuff) and overstated (Beth's repeated homey articulation of the lessons she's learning); but the irrepressible Beth is as likable as before, and just a bit wiser for her experiences.