Dear Great American Writers School

Despite its artificial structure, this bouncy novel agreeably conjures up a bygone period-a small, comfortably eccentric Southern town in the days of WWII. Lured by an ad to ``turn stories into dollars,'' Bobby Lee Pomeroy sends a sample of her writing to the Great American Writers School. Encouraged by an enthusiastic response (``You have the kind of NEW, FRESH, LIVELY TALENT that every editor seeks''), the high school junior continues writing in earnest, recording and mailing off her wry impressions of the locals. Among her subjects are Thelma, the town vamp; Thelma's mother, who is too frightened of bad luck to leave her bed; Dempsey, the son of a wealthy horse breeder, who is anxious to become a soldier; and Sylvia, a quiet Jewish girl new to the town. Her epistles are juxtaposed with the school's requests for payment of the tuition-a device that may weary the reader. Bobby Lee's exuberance, however, buoys the narrative, and the period details add spice. Ages 10-up. (Oct.)