IS THERE LIFE ON A PLASTIC PLANET?

Hollis Brewster, overweight and pushed toward over-achievement by an overstructured mother, is caught up in a world of children's lib when she finds a shop of living dolls run by another living doll (literally, it turns out) called Ms. Eudora--the kind of person she'd always imagined as a big sister. Convinced that she is participating in an ""important scientific experiment,"" Hollis permits Eudora and company to construct a lifelike mechanical model of herself to replace her in school and at all the other places she finds unendurable (dancing lessons, piano lessons, etc.). Complications arise when her ""wretched cousin"" Addison, a show-off whose lack of direction and control is as frustrating as Hollis' scheduled life, discovers the daily switch between Hollis and the doll and joins in the game. The constant diet of sweets and the insipid ""friends"" provided at the shop eventually pale, and Hollis wants to return to her rightful place, but the Hollis doll refuses to yield. In the end it is emotion that conquers the doll, and by then clever kids will have figured out that Ms. Eudora, the ""friends,"" and everyone involved in the shop are automatons. While the message about the creation of robots by programming parents may or may not hit home, youngsters will probably have fun with this.