Tuesday, May 21, 2019

Wildfire #22 Sixteen Can Be Sweet and #23 Take Care of My Girl

Wildfire #22 Sixteen Can Be Sweet, Maud Johnson, 1978

Jenny West is so happy—sweet sixteen and summer on the way!  But her life turns sour when her father's illness sends the Wests off to an isolated beach for the whole summer. 

Jenny's miserable until the bright morning when she looks up and finds herself face to face with Keith Ericson.  The golden days stretch ahead of them—days of walking on the beach, holding hands, sharing secrets. 

But too soon it's September—the summer is over—and Jenny wonders how can she bear to leave Keith...

This story reminds me somewhat of Augusta Huiell Seaman's books that are set on the Jersey coast.  Jenny's family is staying on the coast in order for her father to recover his health, and Jenny is lonely.  Seaman's coastal books feature similar plots.

The cover art amuses me.  The girl is so close to the fire that it appears that the fire is licking at her legs.  Yikes.

Wildfire #23 Take Care of my Girl, Carol Stanley, 1978

Kate never makes trouble—she does all the right things.  But her life is boring.  Then she goes to live with the Myers for a year and her whole life changes.  Aunt Caroline hangs loose about routine and rules.  But she makes Kate try things she has never tried before.  And her older cousin Laura shows Kate a new world of dating and boys.  And Andy?  Well, Andy teaches her all kinds of things—especially how to get a hard-to-get boy.

Neither of these books is special, but I enjoyed both of them.

1 comment:

Tai said...

Carol Stanley has a wonderful sense of humor and the conversations between her characters are my favorite parts of her books. Her endings are fab too. At the end of "Take Care of My Girl," the reader has a sense that Katie is going to be okay wherever she ends up. However, I felt "Take Care of My Girl" couldn't decide if it was going to be about a doomed romance or about being more assertive. It ended up being a weak mixture of both. I liked it, but it wasn't as focused as Stanley's "I've Got A Crush on You."