DAYS LIKE THIS

Set in the girl-group era of the early 1960s, this slender, pleasant graphic novella concerns a plucky young woman who becomes a songwriter; three almost-as-plucky young girls discovered at a high school talent show who become singing sensations Tina and the Tiaras; and a relatively plucky woman who's starting her own record label with some money from a divorce. Chantler's drawings are simple, cute and clean-lined—not an approximation of manga, exactly, but an American equivalent of its quick, bold images. (The book's small b&w format should appeal to manga buffs.) And there's something adorable about the panels of three smiling girls in matching dresses harmonizing or getting their hair done together, even if their notched-circle eyes recall Disney's Huey, Dewey and Louie. As a quick entertainment for younger teens, Days Like This is charming, but there's not much more to it than its surface, and writer Torres largely glosses over the fascinating tensions in the music business of the time (not to mention the work that actually went into creating three-minute AM-radio masterpieces): nobody's got anything tougher to face than a disapproving dad. Torres's fictionalizations of history are harmless on their own (the Brill Building, for instance, becomes "Harmony Plaza"), but what they add up to has none of the convincing force of details—just a cheery little fable about girls on their way to the top. (Apr.)