THE PINBALLS

"Somebody put in a dime, punched a button and out we came, ready or not," says Carly, eldest and toughest of three foster children who call themselves the Pinballs. The others are Harvey, sporting two broken legs because his drunken father ran over him with a car, and Thomas J., an eerily polite eight-year-old brought up by octogenarian identical twins. The twins, who, though women, are named Thomas and Jefferson and do everything together, even to breaking their hips, exemplify the strain of sad-kooky humor that runs through this unabashedly heartwarming tale of how the Pinballs learn solidarity and trust under the benign guidance of ideal foster parents. It is Carly, her hostility breathtakingly and hilariously transformed into a passion for nursing, who saves Harvey from despair by giving him the puppy his mother promised him six years earlier before she ran away to a commune. The sentiment throughout is as subtle as a puppy's wet kiss, but Byars' bright, flaky dialogue invites you to indulge yourself without embarrassment.