Wildfire #6 Funny Girl Like Me, #7 Just Sixteen, and #8 Suzy Who?

Wildfire #6 A Funny Girl Like Me, Jan O’Donnell, 1980

Everything is new for Jeanne.  She's in a new town, going to a new school.  She yearns to be part of the "in" group, to be going to parties with the right crowd.  When she discovers a way to be the life of every party, she's Miss Popularity, always in demand.  Only Tim, who isn't part of the "right" crowd but is the right boy for Jeanne, doesn't like what she's doing.

But it all seems worth it, until Jeanne finds out that being a funny girl isn't always a laughing matter.

The part of the story with the raccoon annoyed me, and I skipped over it.  Jeanne gets this crazy idea to take a slightly tame raccoon to a party to impress her teacher.  The raccoon ends up tearing up the house.  I couldn't believe Jeanne's stupidity, since she seems pretty intelligent.

At the beginning of the story, Jeanne doesn't seem like the type who would play the part of the class clown.  It comes out of nowhere and never makes sense to me.

The book is overall good, but I was never that interested.

Wildfire #7 Just Sixteen, Terry Morris, 1980

Nancy can't believe that a popular superstar like Roger Ames could fall for her.  Even though he's dated lots of older, prettier girls, he treats Nancy like she's something special.  But Nancy's just sixteen and Roger keeps forgetting.  He always seems to expect too much and he always wants everything his way.  Like planning a ski trip for Christmas vacation for just the two of them!  Of course Nancy's parents wouldn't dream of letting her go. 

Nancy's so confused—one moment she's sure she loves Roger more than anything, the next she thinks he's just a spoiled, rich kid.  Is this how she's supposed to feel if she's really in love?

The names used in this story gave me pause.  The main character is Nancy Hughes, and she lives on Cherry Lane.  Her boyfriend is Roger Ames.  The young people like going to a diner named Hardy's.  The author must have been having a little fun with names from series books.

The ending of the story is vague about Nancy and Roger's future.  I don't think they are a good fit, and I'm not sure they have a future.  Overall, this is a good book.

#8 Suzy Who?, Winifred Madison, 1979

It is her first year of high school and Suzy prays that this year will be different—new friends, parties, lots of dates—not just sitting around with the other girls. She wants to be "Suzy Somebody" and maybe even fall in love. Then she meets Peter Gilbert and finds out about love... and heartbreak... and she wishes desperately that she could be "Suzy Nobody" again!

Suzy is so annoying.  Her love for Peter Gilbert is illogical.  Peter is so clearly not interested in Suzy at all.  Even worse, Suzy constantly daydreams, and the daydreams are fairly long and often start suddenly in the middle of scenes.  I ended up confused at times.  I also found the daydreams to be quite boring.

The book is overall good, but it is not very compelling.