PENNINGTON'S LAST TERM

Except for the seventeen-year-old hero's long hair, this British school-boy novel might have been set -- and written -- at almost any time during the last fifty years. Still, the ""desperate but not serious"" escapades of brawling, defiant Patrick Pennington are related with rapid pace and lively humor. Despite a too-pat happy ending in which a famous teacher turns up and offers the working-class hero a music scholarship, boys will enjoy the story's abundance of physical action and will cheer Pennington in his turbulent conflicts with the arbitrary, vindictive school authorities.