THE COMEBACK YEAR

Come back Year is Dex Russell's last in highschool, after an act of vandalism (with two other boys--he had broken some windows) has removed him from the captaincy of the football team and after he is succeeded by a boy he particularly dislikes. His father tells him he must stop troublemaking and start doing ""positive things"" which, in spite of a hard to control temper, he does--he performs well on the field (kicking a field goal with a broken foot) and in an end-of-the-year school play....The teen talk is a colloquial vernacular but the story slumps in spots. If this were a report card, it would get about a C average.