From School Library Journal Grade 7 Up Pirtle trivializes a contempo rary problem of enormous significance: the effect of living under the ever-pre sent threat of nuclear war. Cassie， an eighth-grader in a small town， joins forces with a new neighbor to help form a Peace Group over community objec tions. There are few causes of concern more worthy of examination than the issues that Pirtle tackles: nuclear war， racism， and community action， but somewhere along the way， she seems to have forgotten that a good cause does not make a great novel. A novel must first have credible characters involved in realistic activities， which this book does not. The novel offers about as much verisimilitude as the old Judy Garland-Mickey Rooney movies in which the answer to all tough situations was， ``Hey， let's put on a show.'' Young readers are not going to believe the characters or the story， and that's too bad. The issues are too important to be lost in the pages of a poorly written novel. Jerry D. Flack， Univ. of Colo rado， Colorado SpringsCopyright 1988 Reed Business Information， Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.