DEBORAH TODD

Here is a female Tom Sawyer not as good as the Twain version- but with her own distinction as Deborah Todd plays the swashbuckling heroine in a girls' story that has guts. She is eleven, lives today in the small Lake Superior town of Henry's Bend with her family, and surrounded by her hero Bob Thibeau, their gang and the busy life they lead. One escapade leads to another. If Debby is not selling clothes at a rummage sale or trying to avert Grandmother's lectures or arranging for an old Chippewa chief to speak to a ladies' club she is out skating with Bob and the gang or getting lost down a mine while hunting for uranium with Bob's brother's geiger counter. These incidents are told with snappy dialogue and lively descriptions. But Debby's attitude to life is more important, for she is wisely practical and understanding. Hers is a mind that can cut through conventions and realize that it is what you can do that counts.