STRAWBERRY GIRL

Another story in her regional series (last year's Bayou Suzette might be called a companion piece) -- This time she has told a family story of life among the Florida Crackers, when Florida was just beginning to emerge as an agricultural and fruit growing state. Miss Lenski captures successfully the speech, customs, way of life with its trials and joys, in the story of the feud between the ambitious, hard-working Boyers, and the violent, proud, lazy laters. It is a story for girls, chiefly -- and the alert third and fourth graders will like it fully as well as their slightly older sisters. Mildly dramatic -- and perhaps a shade too moralistic, but all in all good regional material. Authentic and charming quality to the black and whites by the author.