MOLLY'S DOUBLE RAINBOW

In a change from small-town Indiana (Doc Dudley's Daughter, Whispering Willows, etc.) this takes heroine Molly McFarland from Madison, Wisconsin to the East-West Center at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, where Dr. McFarland had been invited as visiting professor. Molly has to stay at the University of Wisconsin later than the rest of the family since she is the only one who can take care of her ailing grandmother. When she and Grandma Mac do arrive in Hawaii, it's too late for Molly to register for classes there, but her stay on the islands is a relaxed cruise--albeit by slow boat. There are scenic descriptions and details about the University and the functions of the East-West Center (they read a bit like college catalogue copy but with a little more enthusiasm). Molly worries sometimes that her intellectual capacity isn't equal to that of her family, develops a genuine interest in the University's unusual drama department, broods over her occasional squabbles with Grandma, has romance (with Johnny, who only wants to marry her so he won't have to go to Viet-Nam; with Nick, a friendly and handsome Hawaiian; and then with an attractive graduate student). Pleasant, wholesome, and somewhat informative--but not worth any o-leis.