MR. AND MRS. BO JO JONES

by Ann Head ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 12, 1967

Take two nice kids. She is sixteen, her father a banker, and she is headed toward a New England women's college with all the trimmings; he is seventeen, his father a construction engineer (or foreman), and he is working toward a football scholarship to the state university. Then one night after a school dance they find that there is a point of no return, and when she turns up pregnant they decide to accept the responsibility and marry. There you have Mr. and Mrs. Bo Jo Jones. July (born on the fourth of) tells the story as she does her best to cope with her family and his, and the married estate. She is lonely, makes a dubious friend, corresponds unthinkingly with a boy she somehow does not tell she is married. The baby comes early after a placenta previa, and dies. Before July and Bo Jo can readjust, the parents move in to separate them and return them to their old futures. But to forget, to go back is ""phoney""-- as July says, ""Bo Jo and I may not have had much in common to start with ...but living with a person over a period of time is about the 'most common' thing you can have with anyone."" They make a stand for themselves and adapt the dreams: she will work, he will go to college. Ann Head deals all this out with a determinedly light hand, but her teenagers for all their troubles are all-American, and appealing--and some young marrieds may empathize, some older ones (women) sympathize. A movie is planned.

Pub Date: May 12, 1967

ISBN: 0451163192

Page Count: -

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1967

Categories: FICTION