FIFTEEN

From Henry Huggins, Ellen Tebbits and the third and fourth grade circuit, Beverly Cleary has moved into the teens to write a book about a girl and her first boy friend that is funny and grand because it doesn't pretend to be anything other than what it is. In it there are no high ideals, no strong minded plans for the future-just boy plus girl and all that goes with it. Jane is the type of girl who just hasn't had a boy friend she can feel proud of. She is prey to obsessive dreams about a handsome joe and thrilled to pieces when Stan, a new boy in town, calls her up after he has seen her just once, baby sitting at someone's house where he happened to be delivering some dog food. The rest of their romance runs the expected course- with fights, parental squabbles, a former girl etc., etc.- but in the manner of telling, they become the expected only after they have happened. It is very amusing, perceptive writing that tells much about being fifteen and should make marvellous reading for any girl who finds herself left out of things and normally irritated by the rest of the world.