Tuesday, March 20, 2018

101 Books, Number 6


 Favorite Books Throughout My Life


6: Fifteen, 1956, by Beverly Cleary (1916–)

This book was fairly new the year
I (sneaking) checked it out.
I sneaked because I feared my friends
Would find what I’m about.

It was my early high school years
When I first read Fifteen,
And, as I have revealed above,
I wished not to be seen

In company with such a book—
“For girls”—that was the rap—
Which subsequently I well would learn
Was just a load of crap.

The story of a teen romance—
It suffered a near-break.
But soon the whole thing all worked out—
It was a mere mistake

That nearly upset apple carts
All over their romance.
But Stan (the guy!) was true to her—
And thus completes the dance.

I read it once again, I’ll say,
Some decades after this.*
And there it was—as I recalled—
That first romantic kiss!

*for my memoir Turning Pages: A Memoir of Books and Libraries and Loss (Kindle Direct, 2012)

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