THE DREAM YEARS

For Valentine's Day, here are stories about the adolescent years, with the insistent yet insidious sweetness of candy hearts. There is Arlie, the welfare child whom an older couple with an earlier loss decide to take to their hearts; there is Jennie Lee, who is assured by kindly Mr. Applegarth, her adored teacher, that she will one day be a lovely woman and win another man's love; there is homely Susie, transformed by her part in a play in which she is kissed by the boy she admires. Susannah had a hat to find her love in; Molly finds happiness in her own family after a day's outing with her father; Wake-Robin (like Jennie Lee), learns the lesson of a first love lost; Dodie retains the love of her special baby-sitting charge by telling the truth about his escapade... Despite the sugar-coating, there is an ease of identification here that may appeal to the romantically inclined.