SATURDAY I RAN AWAY

Pretty tricky,"" as older brother Tom says appreciatively to Emily near the close. A little too tricky, maybe, to be a convincing solution to Emily's problem. She's the put-upon youngest: older sister Katy shamelessly blames her own mishaps on Emily; high-and-mighty Tom guiltlessly excludes her from play. Even Dad picks on her when she takes ""awhile"" in the bathroom: ""No one has to go this soon after eating,"" he says. ""You're just trying to get out of helping with the dishes."" So Emily starts planning--openly--to run away. And Katy, Tom, even her mother and father, confide (separately) that they've often felt like running away too. (""Just disappear for a day,"" her father says.) Ergo, Emily's scheme: she lures them all away, separately, to ""The bend in the creek under the swinging tree""; the family has a dandy picnic outing; and everybody learns ""that we should be nicer to one another so that everybody doesn't want to run away."" Plotwise, Emily's only companion-in-resentment has been Katy (who has a grievance against Tom); the others have just seemed to want to get-away-from-it-all. But Emily's gratification at being called ""pretty tricky"" by Tom does ring true; and it could be that the others would respond accordingly. A chancy, roundabout item--best because it lets youngest-of-all Emily take the initiative.