The trouble with Casey was that she loved her family so much, she was more concerned with their problems than her own. True, she had a terrible temper and always wanted things to go her own way, but maybe that was because she lacked ambition for herself and was ambitious only for her family.
At 17, Casey found it hard to forgive her brother Rick’s sudden marriage, which spelled farewell to college and a journalist’s career now that he had a wife to support. Casey felt she would have to prover herself in a career to make up for her parents’ disappointment in him. Her sister, June, much too shy for her own good, needed Casey’s constant goading to put her best foot forward. Barbara, at ten, was an emotional tempest and Casey felt only she could handle her outbursts. And little Mike – who could defend his daydreaming in school, if not Casey!
In a big family there was never a dull moment. When Dad, a newspaper editor of unquestioned integrity, ran for mayor, personal interest had to be sacrificed as the whole family actively campaigned for him. Casey’s personal problems with Bob and Andy and with school were second in importance to the campaign. Then a crisis in the family made her realize that she had to consider her own ambitions; that maybe, as Rick said, she was someone special after all.
A sensitive and understanding story, giving a warm-hearted picture of a closely knit family, whose tremendous strength lay in a unity that surmounted conflicting loyalties. Through Casey, teen-age girls will, in her own words, “understand a little what life’s about.”
Julian Messner, Inc (copyright 1959)
This book is no longer in print but can be found at many online booksellers.