Log in to track your reading progress.
Overview
Fifteen-year-old Melinda feels split by the demands and expectations of her divorced parents with whom she divides her time. When Melinda spends a summer with her aunt, uncle and cousin, she realizes the unfairness of her situation and begins to regain her own identity and develop the courage to confront her parents with her needs.While spending the summer with her cousin, who is preoccupied with problems of her own, fifteen-year-old Melinda learns to assert herself instead of always trying to please her divorced parents.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
A 15-year-old girl is torn between divorced parents in what PW called a ``generous exploration'' of the ``emotional grip'' of divorce on children. Ages 12-up. (May)Carolyn Phelan
Having grown up shuttling between her divorced parents' households, 14-year-old Melinda (called Mindy at Mom's Milwaukee apartment, Linda at Dad's farm) is weary of fulfilling both parents' expectations and stifling her sense of self. She's more than willing to spend the summer in St. Joseph, Michigan, with her aunt, uncle, and beloved older cousin Sharon. To her surprise, Melinda (the name she chooses for herself) finds that she's confiding not in Sharon but in her aunt and in Paul, a neighborhood boy. Willey writes with keen perception and with a gentle, occasionally mocking tone that suits the quiet story. The well-drawn characters and their relationships evolve slowly, their changes kept within the bounds of realism. A satisfying contemporary novel that balances the necessity of establishing one's identity with the responsibility of caring for others.Book Details
Published
May 1, 1994
Publisher
Laurel Leaf
Pages
144
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780440219026