What do you think?
Sally & Jean Burnaby #5
Campus Melody
Beautiful story of love on campus, mid-century style.
- GenresYoung AdultClassics
222 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1955
About the author
Anne Emery
47 books34 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Anne Emery was born Anne Eleanor McGuigan, in Fargo, North Dakota, and moved to Evanston, Illinois, when she was nine years old. Miss McGuigan attended Evanston Township High School and Northwestern University. Following her graduation from college, her father, a university professor, took the family of five children abroad for a year, where they visited his birthplace in Northern Ireland, as well as the British Isles, France, Switzerland, and Italy. Miss McGuigan spent nine months studying at the University of Grenoble in France. She taught seventh and eighth grades for four years in the Evanston Schools, and fourth and fifth grades for six more years after her marriage to John Emery. She retired from teaching to care for her husband and five children, Mary, Kate, Joan, Robert, and Martha.
Anne Emery wrote books and short stories for teen girls throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Her understanding of the lives of teenaged girls creates believable stories and characters that are readable and re-readable!
Anne Emery was born Anne Eleanor McGuigan, in Fargo, North Dakota, and moved to Evanston, Illinois, when she was nine years old. Miss McGuigan attended Evanston Township High School and Northwestern University. Following her graduation from college, her father, a university professor, took the family of five children abroad for a year, where they visited his birthplace in Northern Ireland, as well as the British Isles, France, Switzerland, and Italy. Miss McGuigan spent nine months studying at the University of Grenoble in France. She taught seventh and eighth grades for four years in the Evanston Schools, and fourth and fifth grades for six more years after her marriage to John Emery. She retired from teaching to care for her husband and five children, Mary, Kate, Joan, Robert, and Martha.
Anne Emery wrote books and short stories for teen girls throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Her understanding of the lives of teenaged girls creates believable stories and characters that are readable and re-readable!
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 25, 2014
4 1/2 stars. I really enjoyed this book and even had trouble putting it down at times :-) I loved the setting and the glimpse into college life.
August 11, 2022
To set things straight, this is book #5, not 4, in the Burnaby series. The first 2 features Sally and the last 3 feature her younger sister Jean. As always, the writing is great and the book is an excellent look at college life in the early 1950s. I really can't say much for Jean's character, though. I mean, did she need a sharp crack on the head to see Phil clearly? Phil, her college boyfriend, was obviously bi-polar and I don't need a psych degree to figure that out. I do wish that the series would continue. I'd like to see Jean with Scotty, although it's suggested that this will happen. I also would like to see more of Sally. She really wasn't in this book, except I think she answered the phone at home once.
All in all, it's a regular "maltshop" book and I enjoy them so much- a look at early times when dating was so much different than it was in my day.
All in all, it's a regular "maltshop" book and I enjoy them so much- a look at early times when dating was so much different than it was in my day.
March 15, 2022
What a great picture of college life in the 1950s! As this is the last in the Sally and Jean Burnaby series, I have to reluctantly say good-bye to the Burnaby's. It was so much fun!
September 9, 2026
I didn't realize this was the last in a 5-book series (or 3 if you only count the Jean books) before I bought it, but this cover was so irresistible, as was the promise of a college campus setting rather than high school, that I decided I didn't want to invest the time & effort to track down and read multiple other titles before I could pick it up.
Fortunately, I wasn't too lost. That beautiful cover may be influencing my rating a bit, because this is definitely still more centered around rather silly dating than anything else, but...I had such a good time.
The thing about 50s dating (at least in teen books) is that even though the girls often hang out with atrocious boys, it's also just that — hanging out. It's very casual and public, and unless you're officially Going Steady then it's fully expected you will go on dates with anyone you like, and occasional kissing at the end of a date is a Momentous Event.
Meanwhile, there are still plenty of other fun things going on. I enjoyed seeing the dances, glimpses at her work covering concerts for the school paper, her roommate, grabbing meals with friends, her bewilderment at how fast her spending money is going, and just the sights of the campus in general. Also loved the piano accompaniment she ends up doing for a fellow classmate, a violinist much more intense about becoming a professional performer, who not-infrequently lectures Jean about how she should be more serious about performing herself (because otherwise what is the point of all these people practicing just to become music teachers for the next generation of students, in endless cycle).
I also enjoyed Jean getting a wake-up call when she goes on the classic freshman track of "8 AM classes are no big deal, I got up so much earlier in high school! Plus, classes are so easy I barely even have to study!" only to find that when midterms and/or finals roll around, she's actually gotten so busy and used to staying up late that she's actually quite behind on her knowledge of the material being tested.
And because it's a a private college in the 50s, I still get a kick of how strict their rules are. Watching her sneak in through windows after-hours was funny enough, but I couldn't get over what happens the second time she's caught coming back late for curfew. With rabble-rousing from the head girl in the dorm, who is also the on/off girlfriend of the Big Man On Campus that Jean keeps going out with and has thus sworn a vendetta against Jean, she receives the maximum punishment: being grounded for a week.
Except it's more like solitary confinement, and only not "solitary" because she has a roommate. For a full week, she is only allowed to leave her dorm room for class/meals. Not only can she not go anywhere else on campus, not even the library, she also can't use the telephone or sit in the living room of her dormitory, which seems way more extreme than even a grounding from your parents would be.
[edit: I almost forgot to mention how much I also liked the visit home for Christmas, even though it forced me to confront how kind of weird it is that Scotty previously dated her sister. I just loved him continuing the tradition of bringing a Christmas ornament for the tree, even though he's not officially "with" Jean at this point in time, joking about how he'll bring the ornament for her younger sister if necessary. Teddy Lawrence levels of "I WILL marry into this family (no matter how many sisters it takes)" behavior here.]
Anyway. It will probably surprise no one that while she eventually accidentally falls for BMOC Phil, he is not quite as invested in the relationship, and good riddance .
On a related note, that mercurial man is going to make the absolute worst kind of philandering husband; good luck to his future wife! Whom I imagine will become both a skilled hostess, expected to impress all his friends and business associates on a regular basis, and a veteran day drinker before too long.
P.S. One note on the ending —
Fortunately, I wasn't too lost. That beautiful cover may be influencing my rating a bit, because this is definitely still more centered around rather silly dating than anything else, but...I had such a good time.
The thing about 50s dating (at least in teen books) is that even though the girls often hang out with atrocious boys, it's also just that — hanging out. It's very casual and public, and unless you're officially Going Steady then it's fully expected you will go on dates with anyone you like, and occasional kissing at the end of a date is a Momentous Event.
Meanwhile, there are still plenty of other fun things going on. I enjoyed seeing the dances, glimpses at her work covering concerts for the school paper, her roommate, grabbing meals with friends, her bewilderment at how fast her spending money is going, and just the sights of the campus in general. Also loved the piano accompaniment she ends up doing for a fellow classmate, a violinist much more intense about becoming a professional performer, who not-infrequently lectures Jean about how she should be more serious about performing herself (because otherwise what is the point of all these people practicing just to become music teachers for the next generation of students, in endless cycle).
I also enjoyed Jean getting a wake-up call when she goes on the classic freshman track of "8 AM classes are no big deal, I got up so much earlier in high school! Plus, classes are so easy I barely even have to study!" only to find that when midterms and/or finals roll around, she's actually gotten so busy and used to staying up late that she's actually quite behind on her knowledge of the material being tested.
And because it's a a private college in the 50s, I still get a kick of how strict their rules are. Watching her sneak in through windows after-hours was funny enough, but I couldn't get over what happens the second time she's caught coming back late for curfew. With rabble-rousing from the head girl in the dorm, who is also the on/off girlfriend of the Big Man On Campus that Jean keeps going out with and has thus sworn a vendetta against Jean, she receives the maximum punishment: being grounded for a week.
Except it's more like solitary confinement, and only not "solitary" because she has a roommate. For a full week, she is only allowed to leave her dorm room for class/meals. Not only can she not go anywhere else on campus, not even the library, she also can't use the telephone or sit in the living room of her dormitory, which seems way more extreme than even a grounding from your parents would be.
[edit: I almost forgot to mention how much I also liked the visit home for Christmas, even though it forced me to confront how kind of weird it is that Scotty previously dated her sister. I just loved him continuing the tradition of bringing a Christmas ornament for the tree, even though he's not officially "with" Jean at this point in time, joking about how he'll bring the ornament for her younger sister if necessary. Teddy Lawrence levels of "I WILL marry into this family (no matter how many sisters it takes)" behavior here.]
Anyway. It will probably surprise no one that while she eventually accidentally falls for BMOC Phil, he is not quite as invested in the relationship, and good riddance .
On a related note, that mercurial man is going to make the absolute worst kind of philandering husband; good luck to his future wife! Whom I imagine will become both a skilled hostess, expected to impress all his friends and business associates on a regular basis, and a veteran day drinker before too long.
P.S. One note on the ending —
June 11, 2026
Jean, Jean... I wanted to like this one but unfortunately Jean is her own worst enemy here and lets one very not worth it man get to her head.
It's her freshman year and while a little sad to leave Scotty behind, Jean is full of good intentions for the school year ahead, she meets her roommate; Melissa who quickly becomes a friend and ends up musically accompanying another student, Rose. All is going well until she enters the orbit of big man on campus; Phil while he is on the outs with his off again/on again girlfriend Pamela.
Phil sucks, he really does and once Jean stops playing it cool and falls for him she behaves in a really silly manner and I was not a fan. Phil has a bit of the 'Kim' about him and gets Jean into trouble. Neither her friends or family like him and she's constantly warned not to let him break her heart but she is just absolutely not willing to take anyones good advice (and seemingly learned nothing from the Kim situation!) and later suffers for it.
I much preferred the side plot of Melissa searching for her perfect man and the little bits we see of Rose who is fiercely devoted to her music.
It's her freshman year and while a little sad to leave Scotty behind, Jean is full of good intentions for the school year ahead, she meets her roommate; Melissa who quickly becomes a friend and ends up musically accompanying another student, Rose. All is going well until she enters the orbit of big man on campus; Phil while he is on the outs with his off again/on again girlfriend Pamela.
Phil sucks, he really does and once Jean stops playing it cool and falls for him she behaves in a really silly manner and I was not a fan. Phil has a bit of the 'Kim' about him and gets Jean into trouble. Neither her friends or family like him and she's constantly warned not to let him break her heart but she is just absolutely not willing to take anyones good advice (and seemingly learned nothing from the Kim situation!) and later suffers for it.
I much preferred the side plot of Melissa searching for her perfect man and the little bits we see of Rose who is fiercely devoted to her music.
November 30, 2024
I have to admit I was a bit frustrated by the focus on our 18? Year old heroine’s love life. Why was it so important for the 18-20 year olds in this book to get married? I guess those were the times- but their unthinking privilege, giving up opportunities that others could never have, combined with the ease with which they got jobs, got into colleges, and had helpful social networks, left me cold. Ah well- like the others in this series, this book was a window into the early 1950s.
November 28, 2022
Jean: "Oh Scotty I love you."
Also Jean: "But now that I'm at college, I probably should date the most popular guy around."
Another frustrating ready of Jean making stupid decisions. I thought it was weird that she was dating her sister's ex-boyfriend. I did not support that romance.
Also Jean: "But now that I'm at college, I probably should date the most popular guy around."
Another frustrating ready of Jean making stupid decisions. I thought it was weird that she was dating her sister's ex-boyfriend. I did not support that romance.
December 4, 2017
This is actually Book #5 in the series, not #4 as listed on GR.
So sad to see my time with the Burnabys at an end!
Note: You can read my review of the entire series on my blog - https://thearomaofbooks.wordpress.com...
So sad to see my time with the Burnabys at an end!
Note: You can read my review of the entire series on my blog - https://thearomaofbooks.wordpress.com...
April 9, 2011
Love love love this look at college in the 1950s! So fun. Melissa on her hunt for a rich husband! As always with Jean, though, you can see exactly where things go wrong and you just want to smack her for being so dumb. I wish Scotty had been around more.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews