Danny is the most popular boy in town, a Peter Pan who won't grow up, with faunlike ears and merry, carefree chatter. He takes her to the Copper Kettle, where the high school crowd hangs out, for grilled cheese and a Coke. Carly knows that the really popular girls have in turn all been his steady dates, but he sweeps her off her feet and she now becomes "his girl." As such, she finds that she has become popular ... she belongs. She feels, however, a strange misgiving in the welcome she receives from the others, and her forebodings prove to be all too well founded.
Much of the action of the story centers about the lake, beautiful, fascinating, but able to assume a dark and tragic aspect too, as Carly learns to her horror.
The reader who follows this typically American girl through the experiences of her first love will learn, as she learns, the truth of what her father says to her: "Hurt is simply a part of growing up. It's as inescapable as -- as cutting teeth." (from the inside flap)
I'm reading this right now! I love these Ike and JFK era teen girl novels! And I'm an old guy! They remind me of how wonderful things used to be, what a cohesive society we had.
ReplyDeleteI read this when I was a kid in the 1970s, and it meant a lot to me. I just bought a paperback recently, and am disappointed in its changes -- this was a reprint dated 1986, so it changed references, such as "Dear Dorothy Dix" to "Dear Abby" understandably, since Abby is still going, while Ms. Dix is not. But they also changed names, from Daisy to Lauren, from B.G. Burgess to Michelle, and many small words and descriptions are gone -- such as the skirt being Paisely print, and the grilled cheese sandwich being cut into various shapes, plus, certain passages make less sense, with something removed, such as Daisy's / Lauren's hat being a sailor hat, then a sentence about her hat making her look childish; and how Carly's grandpa gave them money for sodas, but removed, when Eloise says they should make Carly make good on those sodas, it makes no sense. I want what I remembered and not this. it irritates me. But at least I have confirmation that "Sunday Morning" is a sequel, by the teaser page at the end of the book. This edition has a cover photo of a boy and girl at a restaurant, and is "Young Love" by "Laurel Leaf Books" whereas mine had the second illustrated cover.
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