I bought this book recently because I remembered reading it as a young teen and I thought, what the hell, let's see how it holds up. Fifteen's moral is that Jane needed to be confident and like herself just so she could win the guy. Nowadays a character like this exists in stories as a cautionary tale with a moral that a girl needs to be confident and like herself for who she is and that she doesn't need a boyfriend to achieve either of those things. What's eye-opening here is Jane's attitude about herself and her place - her complete lack of self-confidence and worth. Nothing atypical about that, even in modern YA fiction. Jane Purdy is a typical fifteen-year old girl who just wants to meet a boy, and she does. Want to know just how narrow a woman's place was in the world in the 1950's? Read this. This is a fascinating glimpse of the 1950's.
One might think that a 60 year old Young Adult book would be dated. Her characters, including Beezus and Ramona Quimby, Henry Huggins, and Ralph, the motorcycle-riding mouse, have delighted children for generations. Henshaw won the Newbery Medal, and Ramona Quimby, Age 8 and Ramona and Her Father have been named Newbery Honor Books. Cleary's books have earned her many prestigious awards, including the American Library Association's Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, presented to her in recognition of her lasting contribution to children's literature. And so, the Klickitat Street gang was born! She based her funny stories on her own neighborhood experiences and the sort of children she knew. When a young boy asked her, "Where are the books about kids like us?" she remembered her teacher's encouragement and was inspired to write the books she'd longed to read but couldn't find when she was younger. Before long, her school librarian was saying that she should write children's books when she grew up.
But by third grade, after spending much time in her public library in Portland, Oregon, she found her skills had greatly improved.
As a child, she struggled with reading and writing. Beverly Cleary is one of America's most beloved authors.
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