Books: Rich Little Poor Girl

THE DIARY OF "HELENA MORLEY" (281 pp.)—Translated and edited by Elizabeth Bishop—Farrar, Straus & Cudahy ($4.75).

Little girls are a joy and grown girls can exercise intolerable charms, but the girl just moving into her teens is often a hidden mystery to all but her peers. What makes "Helena Morley" a very special girl is the fact that she told not only all, or nearly all. to her diary, but published the diary in full. Following the day-by-day account, the reader will make a friend and also cross a threshold toward a special kind of understanding.

Her name was not really Helena but...