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)