A CRACK IN THE SIDEWALK

The Templeton family of eight lived in a three-room flat above a store in a middle-sized city. To Linsey, the young heroine of this novel, spring was ""the cement warming as you can go barefoot."" When a teacher told her to ask ""Who am I? Where am I going?"" she began to keep a diary for herself, alone. But her life was bound up with that of her Bible-strict father, who went off to the TB hospital to die; of Mama, immersed in her love for her family; her older sister Kevy, pretty enough to win a beauty contest and even a modeling career. Then there was younger sister Arlie, brother Pem and last but not least Peas, an ""old soul"" forever tied to his chair. Linsey had to give up school and go to work as a waitress at the Red Lion, but the crack in the sidewalk opened wide When she found she could sing for a living, and do a duo not with the glamorous, inconstant Ted, but with kind, caring Peter, who even loved Peas.... Miss Wolff's second novel follows the same pattern as her I, Keturah (p. 733, 1963); even though she has chosen a realistic setting, she imbues it with romance. It is a nice tea-time restorative and particularly salubrious for younger readers.