Review: Sister of the Bride by Beverly Cleary
She may have a thing or two to learn before her sister's wedding is over.
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Vintage Fiction | Young Adult Fiction
Sister of the Bride by Beverly Cleary
Description
Barbara's older sister is getting married! All the wedding and newlywed business has got Barbara's sixteen-year-old mind whirling in a poetic daydream. But she may have a thing or two to learn before the coming ceremony is over.
My Thoughts
Although this is fourth in the series of Cleary’s classic, standalone First Love novels, I wouldn't at all call this book a romance. The bits of Barbara's pre-adventures with love are mostly on the fringes of the story here and there, and they follow a similar pattern as Jean and Johnny and The Luckiest Girl, two other titles in the series.
Barbara’s Looking Forward, I’m Looking Back
This novel is mainly about wedding preparations and what Barbara learns and observes during the experience. Especially what she learns about herself.
I can see how I might've found the read more thrilling back when I was still looking forward to being sixteen. Rereading it now would've brought me an even higher degree of nostalgia than the pleasant degree I get anyway with wholesome youth fiction from decades gone by. Instead, in reading this for the first time as an adult, a good deal of it felt pretty, well, ordinary to me. For lack of a better way to say that.
Lightness and Laughter
Still, the humor had me laughing, the lightness was delightful, and I could absolutely empathize with Barbara on various levels. The lover of old-fashioned fiction in me is quite content for having read this old-fashioned but still relevant tale.
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