WHAT'S THE MATTER, KELLY BEANS?

Kelly, an eight-year-old aspiring writer, is the oldest of three children and has just moved to a new house where she shares a room with her messy sister Erin. The only kids on her block are two boys who are friendly but don't share her interests. She thinks everyone in her family is wonderful at something except for her, until she finds a private place to write her book (about a girl who becomes wonderful), Victoria. There's very little to hold interest in this story; Kelly's problems are minor, of importance only to her, and she is so self- pitying she becomes unlikable. Enderle and Tessler (A Pile of Pigs, 1993, etc.) don't give Kelly enough personality to make her real; throughout the book, the action reads more like filler than plotting. Sims's trademark black-and-white drawings amiably assist in establishing the setting. (Fiction. 6-8)