The Burning Questions of Bingo Brown

To many an anguished adolescent, these questions will seem very tepid indeed. Bingo is bothered by freckles rather than pimples; about which girl in his class he should pursue, rather than any deeper sexual doubts.

The only real problems in his vicinity belong to his emotionally disturbed teacher, who tries to enrol the class in a doomed attempt to rescue his love life.

But Bingo is a likeable character, and this happy tale of American school life is cheerily uplifting, if a little too reassuring in its sunny treatment of topics like pathological obsession and attempted suicide.