BULLDOG ATTITUDE

Mr. Douglas here tells an exciting story about basketball without allowing the game to steal the reader's interest away from the hopes, frustrations, and destnies of his characters in their non-athletic pursuits. Mark Henson, 16, moves to a big city in the hope that the scholastic and athletic opportunities at the high school there will qualify him for college and a place in the sun. He learns about adolescents who drive convertibles and slash (other people's) tires, about Varsity-man cliques, and the nouveau riche of Crescent Drive with its picture-window ranches. He even violates that high school taboo known as ""the steady"" when he takes Wanda away from the town's rich bully, though not without retribution. A well-motivated tale with a gallery of clearly delineated characters.