Buffalo Brenda

Pinkwater snappily sends up suburban upper-middle-class values and ex-hippies while tenderly eulogizing the importance of friendship in this rollicking modern tall tale. India Ink Teidlebaum (named for the medium her mother used for drawing pictures of the cosmos) and Brenda Tuna have been best friends since the first day of seventh grade. Ever inventive--and totally nonconformist--Brenda comes up with a strategy to insure that she and India won't be relegated to the ranks of lowly, ignored freshmen when they enter high school. As a first move, they join the staff of the school paper, but an article by Brenda closes the paper down. Undismayed, Brenda founds the Florence Free Press , which makes national news when an expose of the provenance of the school cafeteria's meat causes a riot. How Brenda starts a booster club and acquires a live bison as a mascot for the school's ailing football team makes for ever more lively plot twists, sure to leave the delighted reader dizzy. Ages 10-14. (May)