GET THE PICTURE, JENNY ARCHER?

Jenny Archer (Can Do, Jenny Archer, 1991, etc.) is disappointed when her grandfather's ballyhooed surprise for her turns out to be nothing but a used camera. When she sees an ad for a photography contest in Kid Talk magazine, however, she decides to give the camera a try. Her first roll is a disaster, but she reads the instruction booklet and tries again, looking for the perfect ``candied'' shot for the contest. She takes a picture of what she believes is a neighbor, Mrs. Katz, strangling her dog, Kiss-Kiss, and almost takes one of a plastic-covered car in neighbor Mr. Munch's driveway. Imagining that Kiss-Kiss is in danger and Mr. Munch is a car thief, Jenny writes anonymous letters of warning. The neighbors storm Jenny's house in a rage: Mrs. Katz accuses her of libel and demands the incriminating picture—which actually shows, not Mrs. Katz strangling Kiss-Kiss, but a large tear in the seat of Mrs. Katz's pants. Mr. Munch tells how Jenny spoiled his surprise birthday present for Mrs. Munch. Jenny apologizes, her parents give her a lecture on jumping to conclusions—she had also thought her mother was having a baby because of a baby-naming book she saw in the garbage—and there the story thankfully ends. Convoluted and dull. (Fiction. 7-9)