Wildfire #4 Beautiful Girl and #5 Superflirt

#4 Beautiful Girl, Elisabeth Ogilvie, 1980

"Are you a real live person or just a doll?  Do you have any insides or are you just beautiful outside?"

April's problem has always been her beauty.  Of course people find that hard to believe, but April says: "When I'm quiet, they say I think I'm too good for them.  When I've got a lot to say they think I'm conceited."

Then April meets Nick, and nothing is the same!  It doesn't matter what the kids in school say about her... until Nick turns out to be just like all the others.  How can she help it if he thinks too much about her, if his schoolwork is suffering, if his dream of going to the Naval Academy doesn't come true?  Is that supposed to be April's fault too?

The summaries on the back of the Wildfire books are often very misleading about the content of the book.  This book is actually about bullying.  The book begins when April is four years old and concludes during her junior year in high school.  All of April's friends over the years turn against her.  One girl named Phyllis really hates her and makes sure that no one else likes April.

April has some false friends.  In one case, April thinks a girl is really her friend until the girl invites April to spend the night.  The friend invited April to spend the night just so that her older brother can try to molest her.

This is an excellent book.

#5 Superflirt, Helen Cavanagh, 1980

Flirting is so much fun, and Susan is good at it.  She's pretty, popular, and she has a good looking boyfriend, John, who thinks she's the greatest.  The girls in her class used to like her too, until they got sick of her always cutting in on their territory and flirting with their boyfriends.  

Susan says she doesn't mean anything by it, but that's just the trouble!  She also says she can't help herself—until John breaks it off with her and she winds up breaking her best friend Debbie's heart.

At first I didn't realize why Susan flirts.  I gradually figured out that her father's mistreatment of her is the reason.  Sometime after that point, Susan's flirting causes her to lose her best friend and boyfriend.  She is devastated and finally figures out the reason as well.

This is an excellent book.  At one point, I had a slight amount of tears come to my eyes.  Not very many books spark that kind of emotion in me.