BETSY AND THE BOYS

We confess to thinking this is a rather sissy book, but these Betsy books have built up a following. Betsy and her loyal pal, Billy, are in fourth grade now and make life lively for their mothers. They slide in the pancake batter and slither through a pink-satin bow tie; there are birthday parties, a Christmas play, a bad, cruel Valentine joke which almost ruins a friendship, and a lot of football combine to create reader interest for both small boys and girls. But everybody in the story over 13 is too good to be true, and the gang is a little too clean about the ears for authentic realism. The illustrations are very successful -- good merchandise.