To be the youngest of four children, and a girl at that, made life almost un- bearable at times for ten-year-old Edie Cares. Theodore was eighteen—a godlike creature to Edie except that he infuriated her frequently by his air of superiority. Jane was seventeen and almost as bad, and Hubert—just turned sixteen—was a fickle companion at best. Edie kept hoping she would be included in their many activities, but she was always disappointed. In rebellion against this unjust fate, Edie was in almost constant trouble.
The summer the Cares children spent at the shore, when their father and stepmother went to Europe, was a memorable one for Edie—chiefly for the wrong reasons. There was the hilarious trip to the shore, with Hubert driving, which included fire, fog, and a brush with the law; the time Edie was caught in a sudden storm while sailing alone against all the rules; and her awesome encounter with "God" after she had cut off her pigtail and run away on an overnight camping trip. Edie finally comes into her own in dramatic fashion when she accidentally finds out who stole their neighbor's jewels during a savage hurricane.
Funny, tender, and exciting by turns, here is an outstanding piece of original writing that stems from the author's own childhood, as do A Lemon and a Star and The Wild Angel, her two previous books about the Cares family. It is a vivid, marvelously revealing story of childhood-with its joys and sorrows, its hopes and disappointments—which children and grownups alike will read with delight.
What the reviewers have said about:
A LEMON AND A STAR
"Unquestionably, this is the outstanding family story of the year.. The Cares escapades contain drama, humor, even a little poignancy, and all of it is superbly recorded here by a distinguished new author." -POLLY GOODWIN, Chicago Tribune
"Here is a new family as warm as Eleanor Estes's Moffats, as full of reasonable ingenuity as the Swallows and the Amazons, and as pain- fully individualistic as Enid Bagnold's Alice, Thomas, and Jane. A book of character for family reading by a new and perceptive writer." -Saturday Review
"A remarkable evocation of turn-of-the-century growing-up in a story with a strong feeling of particular family reminiscence and at the same time of universal childhood.... Unusually well written." -VIRGINIA HAVILAND, The Horn Book
THE WILD ANGEL
"It has imagination and realism, gaiety and wit, an astonishing ear for the speech and thought of youth and a sense of life which infuses each moment, be it humorous, tragic or poignant, with the impact of actuality." -ALICE DIXON BOND, Boston Herald
"Further doings, sometimes touching, sometimes uproariously funny, of the four Cares children.... Like the earlier book the story is marked by undiluted realism, vitality, and an honest portrayal of childhood." -The Booklist
"It's the author's very special talent to see the world through the eyes of the youngsters and make the reader of 10 to 14 a part of that world.... "The Wild Angel' is a beautifully written delight -Minneapolis Morn
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