THE SHINING ROAD

It is unfortunate that stories dealing with the possibility of librarianship as a career somehow are rarely handled with the positive values credibly stressed. This is no exception, though the peripheral elements provide valid story material. Elinor, much against her wishes, has to put up with a summer on a remote island in the Bay of Fundy. But the ""shining road"" of the future opens up with definite ideas for a career developing, and with finding a new friend in Tom, who is working on an ornithological project on a nearby island. There's another element in the problems of adjustment met by a German girl newly come to this country. But the characterizations lack rounding, the conversations seem too contrived, and there's a tendency to convey an acceptance of mediocrity that takes from the impact of the whole.