OUT OF HERE

A bit of conversation here, a sighting there, a romantic entanglement resolved offstage between one story and the next- -this is the accomplished amble Asher takes through the hallways and classrooms of a typical high school. Nine independent tales are linked by the seniors who star; a heroine in one is a walk-on in another, while gossip may foreshadow a culminating moment in the final pages. Stacey begins the year itching to graduate so that she can start a theatrical apprenticeship; Tara ends it delighted to be pregnant by a boy who doesn't know her name. The milieu is effectively wrought, down to the metallic crash of lockers; crisp characterizations are revealed in glimpses that are telling and true. Readers will enjoy looking for themselves among the players; these are wistful kids, with hopes for the future and an expectation that the next encounter, the next conversation, may be the one that sends them over the high-school wall and into the realm of happiness. With its inviting short- story format, like compelling snapshots of real life, this yearbook reaches far beyond Oakview High's graduating class. (Fiction. 12+)