CAPP STREET CARNIVAL

Mary Mae Krebs, the 11-year-old singer-songwriter heroine, knows exactly what she wants in Dutton’s thin but readable, humorous offering. She’s going to devote her life to music, revive her great-granny’s song repertoire, and probably marry her best friend Virgil Hertz. Before she can accomplish any of that, though, she’s got to straighten out the marriage plans of her family’s boarder, 21-year-old Annabelle Gosset. Annabelle has been strong-armed by Mary Mae’s formidable mother into an engagement with up-and-coming Leroy Cuzzens, the crass assistant manager at a chicken-processing plant. Mary Mae knows he’s the wrong man and is determined to make Annabelle realize that good guy Earl C. Hubbard is real marriage material. Mary Mae’s got her good ol’ hands full. All ends predictably well—with a neat twist that will please young readers. Talk about weddings, bridal showers, gowns, etc., will make this much more appealing to girls, though there are some good male figures. Harmless, quick, fun. (Fiction. 8-12)