NEW NEIGHBORS FOR NORA

The six episodes in this third book about Busybody Nora (1976) are characteristically slight, the good-friends-together ending just a shade overdone, but again Hurwitz' easygoing manner and her gift for reading Nora's childlike everyday thoughts will win readers' good will. Here Nora, seven, anticipates the arrival of neighbor Russell's baby sister, but finds that the newcomer, though of the right sex, has much growing to do before she'll make a satisfactory playmate. An eight-year-old who moves in holds more promise, but Jean turns out to be Gene, a show-off know-it-all with two of everything. Most of this then has to do with how Nora and Eugene gradually make friends, hitting it off at last when he teaches her how to blow bubbles. (Previously, Nora had admired the check-out girl who ""made enormous bubbles while pushing the keys on the cash register in the supermarket. Imagine being able to do two such difficult things at one time."") At the bubble-gum level then, amusing and empathic--and readers will surely grit their teeth with Nora at Eugene's aggravating behavior.