THE TROUBLE WITH TOBY

Simply to be oneself is one of the most difficult lessons for the insecure teenager to learn. Always bent on making that all-important impression by bragging and assuming affectations, Toby Miller learns the hard way for her methods do not ""win friends and influence people"". She is rejected by the group of high school girls she longs to join; she takes on and then fails at a job with which she cannot cope; she is frustrated in her attempt to win over a young man. Forced to face reality, Toby finds she can meet the demands of a less taxing summer job which in the end proves a windfall. It gives her the opportunity to meet Neil and to learn that her most attractive self was with her all along -- it was Toby underneath the facade. A story with a viewpoint that is well-developed and that strikes home.