The Bittersweet Time

This quiet novel takes the form of a journal kept by a seventh grader during 1929-1930. Jane and her family are harshly affected by the Depression, so when her volunteer work at a newly established bookshop reaps a salaried job offer, she quits school. For Jane, the opportunity to read an array of books is as important as the income-she plans to be a writer. Ducey (Out of This Nettle) convincingly evokes the era, but it's hard to believe in a heroine whose diary entries include recapitulations of Sunday school classes and paeans to punctuation marks (``I love semi-colons-Miss Roop says I always use them in the right places. If I could only remember possessives!''). Ages 10-13. (Mar.)