Fifteen by: Beverly Cleary

Jane Purdy is fifteen and ready to grow up. She never dreamed growing up would begin at that bratty Sandra Norton's house.

But when Stan Crandall - the neighborhood's cute delivery boy - stops by the Nortons', Jane finds reason to anticipate babysitting - even if Sandra won't behave.

Jane struggles for a reasonable way to get Stan's phone number, but finds out the chivalrous boy is not going to make her wait.

The night of their first meeting, he looks Jane up

But Jane has never dated before, and everything is new to her. She can't let on that she doesn't know how to eat with chopsticks, nor the fact that she'd rather have ice cream over sophisticated coffee. Suddenly her life is very difficult.

When her old friendly nemesis Buzz and her best friend Julie double date with her and Stan, Jane Purdy is surprised to hear Buzz tell her she has turned into a real "Purdy" girl and, in an attempt, to be like ultra-popular Marcy, she consents to him paying fifty cents to give her a kiss.

Stan's mad, Jane can tell. But he can't be that angry with her, can he? He hasn't asked her to the school dance or phoned her, but surely there's a reasonable explanation ... right?

My thoughts:

I once told a friend if she had never read Beverly Cleary she had no childhood ... and it turns out she's never read Beverly Cleary. So I immediately sent her off to the library to check out some of Cleary's books.

Beverly Cleary writes clean, cute reads that will have you laughing and worrying along with the characters. The writing style is unique and very realistic to what probably goes on inside a teen's brain.

Fifteen dates back to the 1950s, so it's been around a while. Definitely a classic.

Objectionable Content:

Language: None.
Romance/Sexual Content: A quick kiss.
Violence: None.
Drug/Alchol Content: None.