Beany is delighted when she hears that her dear childhood friend Miggs Carmody has moved back to Denver, but when they meet up again there is a strange wall between them. Is it because Miggs' family has become very wealthy? There is a scene in which a boyfriend shakes Beany and hurts her. It might be important to talk to your daughter about this scene and how wrong the boyfriend is no matter what Beany's faults in the situation were.
Beany takes in boarders and deals with the guilt of a petty theft.
Rosellen Kern dies and Andy struggles with it.
Beany sympathizes with Tony Lombard who is dealing with guilt from a hit-and-run accident.
Beany is disappointed in a newspaper job falling through and begins work at the Community Center with Carlton Buell.
Beany has a long engagement and is jealous of friends who marry quickly and hassle her about it.
Beany is offered the dream wedding by her step-grandmother who is a fashionable wedding consultant. Tempers flare and personalities clash as these dreams conflict with other, more important things.
I often have the hardest time reviewing my very favorite books. The O'Sullivan family, of Ireland in the 1930s, have become very dear to us over the years. The story is simple and charming, but very real...in the best sense. You pick up the book and can't help reading it with an Irish brogue..and getting carried away from the modern noisy, busy world of today to a land of simplicity and beauty (though not an easy life).
In this second book of the series, 16 year old Beany struggles with the tendency of her family to "stick their necks out" for others at the risk of disappointment, emotional stress and failure. Johnny is busy trying to help an older, forgetful man write a book he's always wanted to write, but may not live to finish. Mary Fred is struggling with the fickle sorority girls in college and Elizabeth anxiously awaits her husband's return from the war.
Fifteen year old Beany is a practical and competent high school sophomore. She knows just how to make the grocery budget stretch just right. She looks out for ways of making people feel more comfortable. From the moment she heard about her long lost cousin, 18 year old Sheila McBride, she pictured a desolate and helpless soul needing a mother hen to make her feel welcome and give her an easier time of things after the difficult life she's led. But from the moment Sheila arrives, everything seems to go wrong. Sheila isn't very talkative and is fond of her gaudy clothes.