NEW LIFE, NEW ROOM

This short, easy story about three children getting ready for a new baby lacks the richness of June Jordan's earlier books, but of its more practical kind it is natural and not without charm. When it is decided that Linda, six, must move in with her two older brothers as the living room where she has been sleeping on the sofa bed will be used for midnight baby feedings and such, Linda realizes that she likes being in the center of things, with her clothes and belongings scattered through the apartment. However, the children accommodate with remarkable grace--thanks largely, one feels, to their father's tolerance and understanding. When Mother is in the hospital he switches bedrooms so that the three children can have the larger one, buys poster paints so that they can decorate it their own way, and allows them to dump toys and games and clothes in a heap, throw out their old bureau and keep the separate drawers under their cots for more play space. With him as an example it's no wonder that the children work out their disagreements about which old toys to keep so amiably, and that moving in together becomes an adventure for all concerned.