STARRING SALLY J. FREEDMAN AS HERSELF

Ten years old in 1947, Sally has to spend the winter in a Florida apartment with her mother, grandmother (Ma Fanny) and older brother Douglas, whose doctor has ordered the stay while he recuperates from nephritis. Sally misses and worries about her father, whom she calls "Dooey bird," but there are visits and mushy letters (she longs to give him "the treatment," a fancy series of kisses), and Florida turns out better than expected. Sally loves the beach, makes some friends at school (including a boy whose teasing indicates that he likes her), and engages in an active fantasy life featuring Margaret O'Brien, Esther Williams, and old Mr. Zavodsky, another tenant, whom she's convinced is Hitler in disguise. As usual Blume is attuned to the secret and/or silly concerns of ordinary kids (though these won't hit the nerve that. . . Margaret's did), but as usual she never takes her readers a step beyond that level. The result, if seductive, is minimally satisfying.