Molly and the Great American Family

Notwithstanding narrator Molly's claims that her ``great American family'' is made up of charming eccentrics, she and her four sisters-dizzy Lizzie, witchy Emma, ace-pitcher Ralph (short for Raphaella) and Clementine, the adorable baby of the family-could be refugees from a particularly shrill situation comedy. Numerous breathless, overly animated ""good news/bad news"" scenarios pump up the action: the good news is that Mrs. Witherspoon has been promoted at work; the bad news is that she must leave the family for a three-month training session in Japan; the good news is that Lizzie lands a job at a bakery; the bad news is that she gets fired on her first day; etc. The sheer profusion of ups and downs chez Witherspoon is more tiring than entertaining, while the self-consciously zany characters are not nearly as original as they seem to think they are. Ages 10-up. (Nov.)