RING AND WALK IN

. . . reads the sign on Janey's doctor father's door, meaning all welcome, no questions asked. But the reader may have a few--like why does spoiled stunner Ceil Bishop choose plain Janey to share a summer in New York at her aunt's? and why did careerist Aunt Hortense, who admittedly has no feel for kids, invite them in the first place? or, scorning the Village, why does she live on its edge? The girls, evidently about thirteen, are forbidden to leave the apartment which spurs restless Ceil to devise a ruse to meet the neighbors--each as hung up in his way as people-wary Aunt Hortense. The odd lot includes would-be poet (for children) Miss Martin; would-be journalist without a theme Mr. Douglas; would-be friend elderly Mrs. Gentle (who isn't); would-be good sexpot Miss Pettibone. Besides barging into other people's lives, Ceil deceives Aunt Hortense enough to stir up a little action in her own (a hippie, Guido, who looks and acts like a baboon). Ceil's all-round guile is supposed to demonstrate to Janey what was never in question, that she's not to be emulated; the high-rise alienation is supposed to show the wisdom of her father's open door policy. Unstable ingredients, and patently medicinal.