Harriet Pyne Grove (1866–1939)

boy howdy, this novel was massively disappointing. imagine my delight when i spied this beauty on ye olde Nostalgia shelf at Half-Price! (ok, you can't see the cover here, but look up Betty Lee, Freshman...it's _exactly_ the same save the word "Senior.") i was so stoked that i read _other_ books first, squirreled this away for when i NEEDED it.

[alas! oh no!]

this novel could have been, at least, good (obviously...the premise--the most genuinely well-rounded and popular student at Lyon High enters her senior year--is literary gold!), and considering that there was a subplot (continued, it seems, from previous novels in the series) involving the Spanish monarchy (circa 1931...what does that mean?), this novel could have been great.

but the writing is like an underage amazon reviewer's summary of What Happened in Betty Lee, Senior. it meanders and somehow manages to over- and under-explain. i was, honestly!, lost for much of the novel. moreover, there was like nothing about clothing and/or food. bah.

one interesting parts:

"'Amy Lou is going through that now, and it's lots of fun, Doris. Let's see that she gets plenty through the mail, too. She'll smell a mouse if valentines in the mail box haven't any stamps on them.'" (146, emphasis added)

does she say "mouse" because "rat" is, like, too vulgar?

… (more)

When Shirley Harcourt travels through Chicago on the first leg of a summer trip, she is surprised at repeatedly being mistaken for someone else. When she returns to Chicago to complete her senior year of high school at a boarding school, she meets her double: wealthy (and proud) Sidney Thorne, who is at the center of the school's social and academic life, and resents the mysterious intruder.

A fairly standard boarding school story, with much time spent on the rapidly changing relationships between various girls. There's never any doubt that Shirley and Sidney must be sisters, but the revelation is delayed as long as possible.… (more)