STARRING DOROTHY KANE

Dorothy has all sorts of problems: middle of three, she has to share a bedroom with her younger brother; when her family moves to a big house, she loses her best friend; and when she transplants some pretty green things in her new backyard they turn out to be poison ivy. Meanwhile, there's a bully down the street. This slight story's potential as an amusing, quick read is undermined by weak writing: there's no clearly defined conflict; time transitions are abrupt; and so much descriptive information is omitted that important questions go unanswered. Though the dialogue rings true, the story is more often told than dramatized. Like Hurricane Harry (1990), also about the Kanes, a disappointment from an accomplished picture book creator whose other venture into fiction was a perceptive YA novel, Kisses (1990). (Fiction. 6-10)