One of the Crowd

Midge Heydon #2

by Rosamond du Jardin

Hardcover in DJ. J.B. Lippincott, 1961.

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Childrens

Hardcover

First published December 1, 1961

About the author

Rosamond du Jardin, née Neal, first wrote humorous verse and short stories for newspaper syndicates, then went on to sell approximately a hundred stories to such magazines as Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, McCall's and many other publications, abroad as well as in the United States. She also wrote five novels for adults before her first novel for teenagers, Practically Seventeen, which was published in 1949.

She was married to Victor Du Jardin on October 28, 1925. They had three children, Jacqueline Neal, Victor Junior, and Judith Carol, with whom she would later co-author Junior Year Abroad.

In addition to writing, Mrs. Du Jardin frequently spoke at schools, and students enjoyed meeting in person the creator of some of their favorite stories. Mrs. Du Jardin enjoyed her school visits, too, because she liked and respected teenagers as individuals and firmly believed that they are interesting, normal and dependable people.

Born in the small town of Fairland, Illinois, Rosamond du Jardin was two years old when her family moved to Chicago. She lived there and in the Chicago suburbs for the rest of her life.

Reviews

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

After Midge's friend Judy Allen moves away, Midge becomes desperate for a new friend (because in the 1950s, you were only allotted one friend, I guess). Thus, when queen of the popular crowd Sandra Towers begins spending time with Midge, it takes Midge about a hundred years to figure out it's only because she's doing Sandra's homework for her. Meanwhile, Midge is also becoming friends with Tricia Farnham, whom Sandra hates, and occasionally dating Hans, a German exchange student, despite Sandra's disapproval on the grounds that he's a "square." Heh.

Query: Will Midge realize who her true friends are, or will she fall under the spell of the crowd and end up drinking and necking at parties where there are no parents to chaperone?

(a) Read to find out.
(b) Duh.
(c) No one cares.

Although actually I liked this book, the last in Tobey and Midge Heydon Series (Yay! Yay for all of you because I will stop telling you about these damn books now!) because unlike the other books, it's about something other than How To Snag a Boy and Keep Him. This is more in the Being Popular Isn't Everything vein and as formulaic as that is, this one is still nicely done.

[Reading with Cats · Rating 4 out of 5]

Midge is kind of an idiot.

[Sophie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sweet little story that kept my mind occupied while I waited for a loved one's surgery to be completed. I was a little frustrated that Midge didn't tumble to the obvious conclusion about Sandra sooner than she did, but it was easy to understand why she was so dazzled by being "one of the crowd." I wish I could find all the du Jardin books in this series. Or better yet, that I had stumbled across them when I was a girl. No doubt, I would have enjoyed them then even more than I did now.

[Melodie Mills · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this series

So nice to know and partially remember that there was a time like this.I went to church gatherings and parties in the early 70's when life was simpler.Andcwe had such good times.We knew how to make our own good clean fun.We had more fun with less material things.

[P Bright · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my least favorite of the series.

[mic jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was okay. It had the classic cozy du Jardin finish. I just had a harder time getting a full sense of Midge as a character than du Jardin's other characters.

[Jasmine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this series! I wish we could have had another book to learn what became of Midge and Tom and Hans!

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Re-read September 2001.

[LeAnnD · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved this!