RISKY TIMES How to Be AIDS-Smart and Stay Healthy <i> by Jeanne Blake (Workman: $5.95, illustrated) </i>

This plain-spoken guide to AIDS prevention for teen-agers includes comments from the six high school students who helped write it. A medical reporter for WBZ-TV in Boston, Jeanne Blake explains the nature of AIDS, and how it can and can’t be spread. She discusses prejudice toward people who are HIV-positive in one especially valuable chapter, but ignores the related problem of homophobia. Although the information about safe sex, condoms and drugs is presented straightforwardly, it’s couched in language that could offend only the most squeamish conservatives. People with AIDS tell their stories, emphasizing that it can happen to you. The publishers have sensibly included a companion pamphlet by columnist Beth Winship, designed to help parents initiate discussions. At a time when AIDS (and other venereal diseases) are spreading with appalling rapidity among teen-agers and young adults, “Risky Times” should be required reading at high schools throughout the country.