Up a Road Slowly by Irene Hunt

   I love this book.
   I always forget how much I love this book but it's a really good book.
   It makes me laugh, it makes me cry, it makes me annoyed and frustrated, and it lets me empathize with not just the sad a character feels but with the fight to do what they know is right verses what they want. Hunt did a good job, in my opinion--and my mother's, for that matter--of catching all the reader's emotions and relating them to things that everyone is going to experience.
   I already talked about Up a Road Slowly but I hadn't recently read the book at that point. When I read it yesterday, I realized that I had forgotten about a lot of the reasons I keep reading this book so I decided to write about it again anyway.
   This book is about a girl named Julie as she grows from age 7 to 17.  In this time, her mother dies, she goes to live with a very proper maiden aunt, deals with her ridiculous liar of an uncle, she struggles with peer pressure and guilt,  her sister marries, her father marries, she dates a guy I hate more every time I read the book, and she writes stories. There's a bit of Shakespeare, Sara Teasdale,  and Edna St. Vincent Millay thrown in.
   This book is set probably around the 1960s. In addition, the situation Julie finds herself in isn't normal. But when reading, I didn't care; I understood what and why she felt what she felt and that's all that really matters. The decisions she makes are always decisions I could see myself making, even if I disagree with the choice.
   Look; this is just a good coming-of-age novel. It's short and sweet and entertaining. Read it.
   Criticisms: I guess the only problem would be the tendency to go off on little tangents. They always have a lot more to do with the story than White's did, though. Also, I love this book. Read it yourself and find your own criticisms. I got nothin'.

   Rating: Great.
   Read again? Duh.
   You read? If you're a girl. I hate saying that, but I guess I don't read enough guy books. Sorry.
   Age? Teen+