Miss Thistlebottom´s Hobgoblins — Theodore M. Bernstein (New York: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 1971, 253 pp. plus index, $6.95)

The “Miss Thistlebottom” of the title is a composite of elementary school English teachers through the ages, the unfailing nemesis of the young individualist; the hobgoblins are the rules she laid down for English composition — some worthy, some archaic, but all to be strictly observed, whether or not they made for real communication. Using this ploy, Mr. Bernstein has produced a breezy exposé, liberally spiced with examples, of the taboos of writing whose relevance often has been lost in antiquity.