Sister of the Bride facts for kids
First edition
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| Author | Beverly Cleary |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
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Publication date
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1963 |
Sister of the Bride is a young adult novel written by Beverly Cleary in 1963. It tells the story of a teenage girl dealing with big changes in her family and her own life.
Contents
What is Sister of the Bride About?
The story follows Barbara MacLane, a sixteen-year-old girl living in the suburbs of San Francisco. Barbara has a lot on her mind. She's worried about finding a boyfriend and getting into the University of California, Berkeley. She also feels like she's always trying to catch up to her older sister, Rosemary, who is two years ahead of her and already a student at Berkeley.
Barbara's Big Worries
Barbara often feels left behind by Rosemary. This feeling gets even stronger when Rosemary calls home with surprising news. She announces that she is going to marry her college sweetheart, Greg! This news is a bit of a shock for their parents. But Barbara quickly gets excited about all the romantic details of a wedding.
She decides that if Rosemary is getting married, Barbara needs to find a serious boyfriend too. She looks at two possible guys. One is Tootie Bodger, a tall and quiet trombone player. He likes Barbara more than she likes him. The other is Bill Cunningham, a good-looking classmate with a Vespa scooter. Barbara tries to impress Bill with homemade cookies. But this doesn't quite work out. He starts to think she's only good at cooking and asks her to mend his ripped shirt! Tootie is shown as steady and thoughtful. Bill, on the other hand, is charming but not very considerate.
Wedding Bells and New Plans
As Rosemary's wedding plans get more stressful, Barbara starts to see things differently. There's tension between Barbara's family, the MacLanes, who are not very rich, and Greg's wealthy parents. There are also worries about how much the wedding will cost. Plus, Rosemary and Greg have to make sacrifices, like living in a less fancy place to save money.
Seeing all these adult problems makes Barbara think. Maybe she isn't quite ready to live a serious adult life just yet.
Finding the Right Path
At Rosemary's wedding, the sisters' wise grandmother gives Barbara some advice. She tells Barbara to "Have a good time while you are young." Barbara seems to take this advice to heart. She decides to focus less on finding a special boyfriend right away. Instead, she wants to enjoy spending time with many different friends and having fun.
Images for kids
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First edition cover of Sister of the Bride
