Star Shine

Greene's new novel may be deemed the topper of all the funny, moving unpredictable stories that have won her awards and devout fans. The excitement jets off here when Mrs. Chisholm leaves home ""for a few weeks'' to tour with an acting company. Jenny (11) and her sister Mary (almost 13) persuade their father to let them manage on their own in their mother's absence. The sisters stick together, despite occasional squabbles arising from Jenny's salty disapproval of Mary's adolescent airs and snippy, boy-crazy friends. When a company arrives in town to make a film, everybody gets in line to apply for the 40 that is paid to extras, but it's raffish Jenny (``your basic gamine'') who's chosen. As the girls' elderly friend Mrs. Carruthers says, the movie actors in her young days had ``star shine,'' which is what readers will agree Jennyand author Greenehave too. (1014)