Fifteen by Beverly Cleary

Jane Purdy is fifteen and is sweetly longing to meet a boy. She's mature, level-headed most of the time, and her journey over the course of this slim early version of a YA novel is not an insignificant one.

Jane's parents are reasonable adults, and though they take a back-burner role in this one, they aren't lightly sketched as dimwits or cold and distant parents. The father actually put me in mind of a mid-century Mr. Bennet and I think Austen would approve. Jane's love interest, Stan, is gentlemanly and kind — and he and Jane are a great pair, once they work out the miscommunication issues, traps in which most teens can find themselves from time to time.

I have such a distinct memory of when I first read this book. I think I was around nine or ten years old, and I had gotten this book from the Scholastic or Troll order forms that went around the classrooms back in elementary school. I can recall still, like a memory of my own, Jane Purdy and her angsty but tender first dating experience. And I swear, I think the images I had back then are the same that were used by my brain now as I re-read this one.

I was so pleased to find that Jane, when considering her future, talks about planning on college and a career before marrying and having kids. I think this one really held up to a delightful reread — even decades later, and even many more decades from its initial publication in 1956.