THE SUMMER SLEIGH RIDE

Amusing and satisfying SF/fantasy for the younger set, as appealing in its way for girls as the recent Andy Buckram's Tin Men (p. 245-J83) is for boys. It starts with Belle, Margaret, Polly and Emilie convinced that someone is spying on them. At just the point where you begin to suspect that this is going to devolve into just another one of those innocuous, juvenile skulking-after-nothing accounts, the sleigh ride takes off. The four girls are abducted from their small town in the 1930's and transported to a future time level where they are to be part of a living museum exhibit of things and people as they used to be. It is a germ free society and, after convincing a previously kidnapped girl who had been held static to the age at which she was acquired, the girls feign a contagious disease which gets them home into the past. Nicely detailed, the author elicits a willing suspension of disbelief to present a successful entertainment.