HOLD YOURSELF DEAR

Except for the title (we've parsed it several ways, pinching ourselves to see if it was really, really true) this is nice teen-age stuff asset down by the very verbal Merle Conklin sixteen, and ""32-22-30 underdeveloped."" Actually that sticky title phrase is her mother's all-purpose expression which she adapts to different kinds of situations; Merle has a definition of her own to workout, being square, or as she sees it ""just fair and honest, solid and substantial."" So that underneath this rather breathless (with italicized interruptions) first person account of her move to a new town, clothes, classes, her acceptance by the School paper, and her first real romance, a little guidance is tucked in. But, there's not much of a story to cut your second teeth on.