AN ADOLESCENT NOVEL: ART AND THE COMPUTER

Summary of Plot. Molly Barnes is taking a Saturday computer programming course offered to junior high students at Collier College, as are two fellow students and veteran programmers, Brian Regan and Allen Yeager. Brian learns that his intelligent but impulsive friend Allen has been hacking at the time-sharing system of a nearby university used by the college and has gotten into some files that he assumes belong to a museum. With mischievous but good intentions, he added the name of a local art collector, a Mrs. Fairchild, to the list, only to find out from Brian and Molly that she, coincidentally, was just robbed of a painting. The eccentric Mrs. Fairchild, a former actress, tells Molly that her husband, a retired engineer, interested in art and computers, was missing and, she fears, kidnapped by whoever took her painting. Though she produces a note indicating the possibility, Molly is skeptical, yet eventually convinced by her friends that they should try, in the event another painting is stolen, to pass a code to Mr. Fairchild so he could communicate with them via computer. For Allen has discovered the files he got into were probably stolen by another user who they hypothesize is not only stealing art works, but may have Mr. Fairchild. Meanwhile, Molly finds a fore-edge painting in a book of Mr. Fairchild\u27s which turns out to be one three rare books the thieves are after, the second having been recently stolen from a famous library. Receiving a coded message from Mr. Fairchild which leads them to a nearby town, they find a Mr. Fisher who had the third copy of the book. Too late to warn him, they find him tied up, his book stolen, and themselves snowbound for one night. He gives them information about the books and the next day they leave. On the way home, they stop at Mrs. Fairchild\u27s where, instead of her, they find Mr. Fairchild and his two kidnappers. Held captive too, they are ultimately rescued after Mrs. Fairchild, acting as the decorator, gives a performance that both confuses and foils the kidnapper thieves