FOR YOUR EYES ONLY!

A realistic novel, in the form of a journal, made slightly above average by the author's use of poetry. Mr. Moffat, the sixth-grade substitute teacher, asks everyone in Lucy's class to keep journals that he might read. Lucy is articulate about her rather typical concerns and activities. She lives with her divorced mother and comments upon her father's new love life. She has squabbles with her girlfriends and is tormented by Andy, a classmate who turns out to be the victim of abuse. The terrain is familiar, if not predictable. The teacher introduces the children to poems by Lilian Moore, Langston Hughes, Valerie Worth, and others, reprinted and commented upon by Lucy. She writes poetry, too, most of which seems too accomplished for her character. The poetry gives this a lift but doesn't sustain it; Andy's serious problems are dealt with too quickly and neatly. (Fiction. 8-12)