PORTRAIT OF MIRANDA

Named for a grandmother whom she knows only through a WW II portrait, Miranda feels overshadowed by the woman's mysterious power. Meanwhile, her junior year at a Brooklyn private school brings challenges and changes as she works out who she herself is behind her ``vital, vibrant, visible'' facade. Winning the coveted part of Miranda in The Tempest, she experiences first love with Noel, who sees beyond the roles she plays both on stage and off. In the end, the discovery of some letters by her grandmother reveals long-kept secrets that enable Miranda to come to terms with herself. This coming-of-age tale suffers from problems similar to those in Mango's Just for the Summer (1990): the first-person narrative is stuffed with overdramatic incidents that don't further the plot, and there's little character development: Miranda's mother is depicted mainly in terms of her hearing problems, and her father is the stereotypically remote scientist. Miranda continually reiterates her feelings of being lonely, friendless, insecure, etc., while too many difficult problems get facile solutions. Not bad, but in need of editing. (Fiction. 12+)