i am so impressed with this, honestly. in 1975 to write a book that is so open about so many things that no one was talking about, brava! i so appreciate how she's talking about sex -especially the first time having it, birth control, abortion, female pleasure, adoption, and more. she also (i'm loving this lately in books) has a very close family with good relationships between the kids and parents and between the siblings. there is trust and honesty as well as conflict and it is realistic and works.

i was reading this at the same time as i was reading a book about other high school seniors, all of whom were having sex all over the place. i think both depictions are true and important. i'm sure it's still true that there are high schoolers not super familiar with sex and this is a really sweet look at how it might feel to discover it for the first time. i wasn't 100% sure how i was supposed to read michael; he cared about katherine and i think he really was okay waiting but also he pressured her into it, but in a less overt way. i didn't love that but it's probably really realistic.

i thought she did a really excellent job here, and the narrator was also great. (3.5 stars)

from feb 2008: 2 stars ( )

Well I think this is another book that I'll have to give to my niece and nephews when they become teenagers. ( )

I read this book after picking it up at the library for Banned Book Week, and because it was one of the current selections of the Banned Books group on Goodreads.

I'm clearly not the target audience. This book was quick, simple, and quite predictable. It's also realistic and honest about the up and downs of first loves, as well as some of the trials of simply being a teenager about to leave childhood behind (I'm not so far removed from that age that I forgot what it was like). The book is good for it's honesty and not sugarcoating the awkwardness of the characters' experiences, and frank descriptions of awkward first sexual experiences, which was the reason this book was banned.

Still, I'll grant that the book isn't targeted at my demographic, so I could only merely "like it" (3 stars). I read it was curiosity as well a duty to stand against censorship, otherwise I probably would have never read it. Overall, it's not bad and I don't regret taking the time to read it, but it's not really a great book either. But it is truthful and honest, and that's a plus for me. ( )

While I had high expectations for my first Judy Blume, I found that this felt juvenile and almost as if it was supposed to send a message. I'm not sure if it's because I was reading this forty years after publication, but I didn't really appreciate this.

This whole book was about a relationship. The whole book. There was barely any subplots, just talk about Kath and Michael and Michael and Kath. I love my romances and I love my YA romances especially, but there needs to be more than what was here.

I did appreciate that Blume confronted the sex topic, especially for the time, but it took over a lot of the book despite barely being a conflict. Michael was a good guy and didn't pressure Kath, so I don't see why it was such a big issue.

The most interesting side note was Artie, whose mental health was questionable and who had an intriguing relationship with Kath's best friend, Erica. Also, Sybil was an interesting character, getting into top universities yet getting pregnant. I thought these two had a lot more depth to them than Kath and Michael, honestly.

Also, maybe this is a stylistic thing of the time period, but the amount of ellipses used in this book drove me up the wall. They start in the title and they never end. Additionally, Ralph was just weird.

At the end, it felt like Kath's parents won and got their 'I told you so' moment, and the whole book was just proving their point. I felt like, as a young adult, that I was being a little bit patronized.

Maybe I'll give another Blume book a shot since I had heard such great things, but this wasn't my style. ( )

My mom wouldn't let me read this when I was a kid, but it was on Rolling Stone's recent list of the 40 Best YA books (a much hipper list than what usually gets published) so I read it. It's a quick read, and I understand why my mom didn't let me read it when I was in high school. That said, I kind of wish she would've let me. Not because of the graphic sex (and it IS pretty graphic), but because of the emotional element of relationships at a young age. The main character is so wrapped up in this one boy (as was I) and is fairly short-sighted with what "forever" should mean. Of course I'm speaking now from a much different vantage point, but I like to think that it may have impacted my approach to relationships.

As for the writing, it's okay. I wasn't wild about all the ellipses, but maybe that was the writing style in the 1970s? ( )