Phoebe

Sisters

by Marilyn Kaye

Arriving home from summer camp, eleven-year-old Phoebe disappointedly finds everything has changed--the living room furniture is new, her mother has a job, and her best friends have become interested in boys--and then she begins to grow up in her own way when she leads a protest against book banning in the library. A lively, humorous look at being the youngest of four sisters. This begins a major new series.

Genres: Young Adult

146 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1987

About the author

I was born in New Britain, Connecticut, and grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. I also spent a year (5th grade) in Montgomery, Alabama, and a year in Ann Arbor, Michigan(8th grade). As a child, I always wanted to be a writer, but I had lots of other ambitions too. I wanted to be a teacher, a librarian, a movie star, the president of the United States, and a ballerina.

I didn't achieve all my goals. I never became a movie star, the president of the U.S., or a ballerina. But I've been a teacher and a librarian and most of all, a writer. I've been writing for as long as I can remember. Growing up, I always kept a diary. I wrote poems, stories, plays, songs and lots of letters. Writing wasn't easy for me, but it felt natural and right.

I've always read a lot, too. I was an English major at Emory University (I love Shakespeare), and I also received a master's degree in library science at Emory. I earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Chicago, and I taught children's and teen literature at St. John's University in New York for over 20 years. Now, I'm a full-time writer, living in Paris, France - the most beautiful city in the world.

Reviews

[Katy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Something sparked a vague memory of reading a YA series in the 90s with 4 books, each titled with a single name, and once I'd got that far, I had to try and track them down. They were very fast re-reads, and actually pretty good for what they were, so for a child of around 11 or 12, they'd probably get scored at about 4 stars, although there's not much meat in them.

[DubaiReader · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit dated.

I had no idea when I read this short Young Adult book, that Marliyn Kaye was currently the author of 121 books. This must have been one of her earliest books, written before the days of mobile phones and computers. It relates to a much simpler time, when long summer days were spent by the swimming pool with friends.

Phoebe is the youngest of four sisters, she is still a child with little interest in boyfriends and make up. When she comes back from Summer Camp though, her four closest frinds have crossed this bridge without her and she feels isolated and lonely.

I don't want to give the storyline away so I'll just say that Marilyn Kaye seems to understand how youngsters feel and had me reading to the end even though this was a YA book and in no way a Teen-Adult cross-over.
A bit dated but an enjoyable reminder of how things were nearly 25 years ago.

[Cws]

JF-Kay