BIG DEAL by Janet Lambert

I have done a disservice to Buff and Bobo. If you don't recognize the names, that is because I only gave them the most cursory of introductions in the post on CINDA . They are the younger siblings of Cinda Hollister and they are kind of adorable. Buff is very girly and likes being perfect and getting attention, Bobo is lazy and only helps out when it serves his purposes. For some reason I hated the slow rollout of Tippy and Bobby Parrish in the Penny books (well, probably because Bobby ended up being Bobby) but I love how B&B get a little more nuanced in each of the Cinda books. I hope we get to see them become more the focus of the stories as the Hollister saga continues. 

I also neglected to mention a HUGE plot point when I wrote up FLY AWAY CINDA, the second installment. Cinda's best friend is Kitty Lou who is described thusly in BIG DEAL - "All the adults in Glenvale agreed that Kitty Lou would be a 'raving, tearing beauty in a few years,' so she constantly prepared for that breath-stopping time. She couldn't eat chocolate fudge sundaes with whipped cream on top lest lumps of gat appear in the wrong places; and because she looked like a blond, blue-eyed fairy who could easily turn into a dimpled cherub if she weren't careful of her calories, she often glared enviously over her lemonade at Cinda, who could eat anything and never gain a pound." Which is a little harsh and fat-shamey, but describes Kitty-Lou perfectly.

Anyway, in the last book Kitty-Lou had a big crush on Page, the BMOC. He was an entitled rich-boy who liked to play chicken on the highway. Cinda figured out how lame he was right away, but KL wasn't as lucky and ended up getting in to a serious crash while out riding with him. He tried to blame it on her and only Cinda's father's detective work and lawyering skills got him his just desserts - which were loss of license and boarding school. It was kind of a big deal (Get it? Hee...) and I'm surprised that I left it out of the recap. Anyway, it shows up in this one and will just tell you up front that Page is sorry and Kitty Lou is forgiving. Which is nice.

This book has two main arcs. The first is that the town is expanding and the Hollisters' amazing and overwrought house is going to be right in the middle of the new commercial district. A hospital wants to buy it, but where is the family going to move? Well, it turns out they are going to move to an awesome new house that is a little bit more richie-rich, but also further out of town. Cinda, because she is a little goofball, gets her parents to let her move the old fashioned stained glass window that she loves to the new house so all is well. Lambert illustrates this expansion and the impact quite neatly.

The second arc is that because of the move, the Hollisters are unable to go to the shore and are thus stuck at home for the summer. Cinda is bored and decides to put on a show. I love the whole "Let's put on a show!" vibe and there's all kinds of excitement. Cinda is a born organizer and they end up using the proceeds to buy a wheelchair for a "poor crippled girl". I have to say that Cinda is pretty modern in her desire to have Thelma be part of the fun rather than just an object of pity. Well done, Cinda.

In my earlier Lambert reads, I would take copious notes and now I do not, and frankly, it shows. So now I am just dog ear-ing pages of interest and then later trying to figure out why. Here are what I think are the things I want to remember.

• At one point Kitty-Lou calls Cinda and Paul "crazy squares" and this slang feels so awkward that I just loved it. 
• Cinda doesn't want to go to "the club" because the pool there is full of "ancients who think the 'younger set' as they call us, has no right to be in it." Oh, that intergenerational conflict!
• Paul and Cinda talk about their futures and Cinda says, "People get married, you know. Men go off to their jobs and women stay home to theirs." Yikes!
• When the kids are trying to come up with a name for the show someone says "Teen-Age Frolic" and Paul says, "I think the Frolic part's good. I don't go for the Teen-Age, though. This teen-age business has been run in the ground." Yes, the phrase teen-age is definitely not going to stick around...
• On the same page, Janet has Warren call Kitty-Lou "sexy" and Lindsay sticks up for her as if it was an awful thing to say. 
• Cinda and Paul have a discussion about kissing wherein we read Paul's thoughts that sure, he'd kiss some hussy, but Cinda is the kind of girl you don't kiss until you are ready to marry her. 
• More on the "crazy teen-age" front - Lindsay says, "Times have changed, kid. Teen agers don't just read the news now, they make it. Good or bad, they make it. 

I have to say that Janet keeps her opinions right there on top of her fiction. She still believes that teenagers can be good, but it is a slippery slope and kissing and being wild are always dangers unless they use their powers for good.  There are always dating and crushes and it always seems like she thinks it is fine if a boy is crazy about a girl, but if a girl is crazy about a boy it is a recipe for trouble. If you thought her propaganda game was good during WW2, just wait until she starts in on going steady in her next book, GOING STEADY. 

Stay tuned!

THE PRECIOUS DAYS by Janet Lambert

 

Hey, it's a new family - the Campbells! And they are weird. Seriously weird for Janet. The Dad is a former professor, an intellectual who should be writing, but is not. The mom is an artist who also lives in her head. They roam the sea on a refurbed Chinese junk and have been in all kinds of exoric ports, but are currently in, I believe, New Jersey.

The eldest of the three kids are Sandra who is sixteen and believes that everyone is constantly judging her. She is kind of a pill, but frankly, she is doing most of the parenting on that boat and I get why she is so pissed all the time. Her parents are completely clueless about what it is like to be a teenager, particularly at a time when conformity is so important. And also, she is stunningly beautiful.

Josie is the middle child, so of course she is awesome. She is a young 14 in many ways, but she is also an excellent problem-solver and the best wing-man a big sister could have.  There is a younger brother - Tenny - who is probably 11-ish and extremely well adjusted, as Lambertian younger brothers usually are, Bobby Parrish notwithstanding.  

The kids' names are actually Cassandra, Josephine and Tennyson, which I am sure seemed strange at the time, but are now (with the possible exception of Tennyson) pretty run of the mill now. 

So they live on a boat and the girls are hanging out on the dock and see some townies. Sandra acts all weird and speaks a foreign language and gets angry to be noticed. It is fascinating because she feels like she is being looked down on, when in reality everyone can see she is fascinating. Janet does a wonderful job of painting that teenage-navel-gazing thing where they just know that everyone is staring at them and they feel so exposed. She also gives a look at economic disparity that is fairly realistic. It's all well educated white folks, but still.

The story is a delight. This boy - Jay Stagliano (an Italian-American - so exotic!) gets an eyeful of Sandra and decides to rush her. She, somewhat awkwardly, pretends to be a woman of mystery and it frees her up to enjoy herself. She is eventually revealed to be who she is, but Jay is not put off. He actually finds her even more fascinating! The rest of the book is a mix of Sandra giving in to the social pull of belonging and allowing herself to have fun and the family as a whole recognizing that some changes need to be made as the kids get older. Josie and Tenny, who are a little young to feel the sting of "different-ness" as much as Sandra, are pulled into the fun and her parents eventually recognize that they have been dropping the ball parenting-wise. 

The Campbells do end up hitting the road (or more precisely, the sea) at the end of the book, but there is more structure, and more money, in their future. Jay doesn't declare his love to Sandra at the end of the book - Lambert's boys NEVER declare love at first book - but he lets us readers into his heart and shows that it only beats for her. And luckily, he is wealthy, so he plans to go visit the Campbells wherever they end up. (I am currently reading FOR EACH OTHER, and he shows up in Haiti.) All in all, a satisfactory conclusion.