APPLES EVERY DAY

It's a three-dimensional year book of Kenner, an ultra-progressive Canadian school, where the students are given almost total freedom. There were three new students entering at the beginning of the year--Phil, who had been labelled ""incurably antisocial"" was beyond the help of the school and ran away; Jerry who had always been at ease with people and wanted to go to a college prep school, found by the end of the year that Kenner was not really suited to his needs or temperament; Sheila, a lonely, sullen, dissatisfied girl when she entered, was able to open out and discover her abilities in the environment. The school itself is not judged here--both its strengths and its weaknesses are in evidence here; frequently they depend on the point of view, and there are many points of view offered. The characters are always real, like romantically inclined Mimi with the Clearasil spotted face, and the teachers are people, too. And the conversation is very contemporary pop art and theater-of-the-absurd, new bras and old blue jeans, Ogden Nash and Finnian's Wake, psychiatry, folk music, and, of course, love and the opposite sex. What's missing is a story, but the atmosphere and characters are strong in themselves.