What do you think?
Rate this book
Gone Before Spring
Dippity-Do, garter belts, "Bucket of Blood", and ? and the Mysterians are so 1967. This is the year Ruth Ann Bloomfield is in the eighth grade at St. Bonaventure’s (better known as St. Boner’s Adventure). She’s excited to find herself in a popular group of girls, The Tandem Riders, and has caught the eye of the cutest boy in school. Her usual problems of staying away from her mean and much older sister, trying to ditch the pesky girl next door, and convincing her friends that her divorced Catholic/Jewish family is cool, not crazy become insignificant when her body betrays her. Ruth Ann learns that growing up is more than sneaking Winstons and shopping at Mitchell’s Young at Heart. Coming of age against the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War, and a rising counter culture, Ruth Ann discovers, through friendship, what truly matters.
This book is filled with iconic music references and great attention to vintage era-specific detail. This will appeal to young adult readers as well as adults who grew up in this era. With gentle humor, the story of Ruth Ann tackles difficult subjects such as body image, self-esteem, and sexual pressure. Most importantly, this is the story of a girl with Psoriasis. This disease causes not just skin sores, itching, and irritation. Psoriasis also leads to depression, shame, anxiety, and can even result in suicide. While there are better options today for treatment, in 1967, the treatments were primitive and ineffective. Most people had to wait it out and many got no relief at all.
Ruth Ann learns that being a good friend is more important than how she looks or even how she feels. She searches for companionship and belonging to compensate for the lack of nurturing she gets from her divorced family. The added pressure of hiding her skin causes enormous tension in her relationships and life.
Ruth Ann is a believable and relatable character for young and not-so-young readers alike. This book is filled with quirky, funny people offsetting a very serious topic. It is a touching and enjoyable read.
This book is filled with iconic music references and great attention to vintage era-specific detail. This will appeal to young adult readers as well as adults who grew up in this era. With gentle humor, the story of Ruth Ann tackles difficult subjects such as body image, self-esteem, and sexual pressure. Most importantly, this is the story of a girl with Psoriasis. This disease causes not just skin sores, itching, and irritation. Psoriasis also leads to depression, shame, anxiety, and can even result in suicide. While there are better options today for treatment, in 1967, the treatments were primitive and ineffective. Most people had to wait it out and many got no relief at all.
Ruth Ann learns that being a good friend is more important than how she looks or even how she feels. She searches for companionship and belonging to compensate for the lack of nurturing she gets from her divorced family. The added pressure of hiding her skin causes enormous tension in her relationships and life.
Ruth Ann is a believable and relatable character for young and not-so-young readers alike. This book is filled with quirky, funny people offsetting a very serious topic. It is a touching and enjoyable read.
321 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 6, 2017
12 people are currently reading
19 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
March 16, 2019
This book was an absolute gem! I think it's technically written for young adults but this full-on adult thoroughly enjoyed it. It felt like a slightly more mature version of a Judy Blume novel, with very realistic and relatable thoughts coming from the main character. Being from Grand Rapids also, I could totally appreciate all the details about streets and shops and parks. The period details were spot on and really enhanced the story. It was such a quick read because I didn't want to put it down!
December 13, 2017
I grew up in Alger Heights in the seventies and this book brought me back to wonderful childhood memories. I used to go to Mitchell's Young at Heart, Alger Hardware to rent tandem bikes, and Alger Variety for candy. As a matter of fact, the grocery store, Boorsmas had an amazing meat counter and the butcher, Frank, gave all the kids hot dogs! Sheila Solomon Shotwell is an amazing author and I never wanted this book to end. I remember so much of these things from my childhood it warmed my heart. I feel like Ruth Ann and all her friends were part of my life and I never wanted the book to end!
I cannot wait until the sequel comes out. Kudos to Sheila for writing this amazing book.
I cannot wait until the sequel comes out. Kudos to Sheila for writing this amazing book.
November 13, 2018
Poignant, yet never sappy, this account of growing up in the mid-60s is a quick, enjoyable read. Even though Ruth Ann has her own specific issues with growing up half-Jewish/half-Catholic in the Midwest as well as having severe psoriasis, both young adult and adult readers can relate to her troubles. Whether dealing with her neglectful mother, over-bearing sister, or absent father, outgrowing old friends, struggling with new friends, learning how to navigate puberty and her feelings about boys, Ruth Ann is a truthful, funny narrator.
Highly recommend!
Highly recommend!
July 22, 2021
(This is a combined review of Gone Before Spring and its sequel, No Doubt in My Mind.)
Ruth Ann Bloomfield, the teen protagonist of the series whose engaging first-person narrative hooked me almost immediately, moved from Saginaw to Grand Rapids as a child but still has friends in Saginaw, so I got a nice dose of hometown reminiscing as I immersed myself in both books.
Ruth Ann shares her life – friends, cliques, boys, school, music, family, Catholicism, Judaism, and a disfiguring skin disease that causes both emotional and physical pain. As she deals with her condition, Ruth Ann learns who her friends are, and her experience rings very true for this reader who suffered with severe acne for many years. (The condition Ruth Ann has is not acne.)
For YA novels, both volumes are satisfyingly long, and the author lets Ruth Ann tell her story while keeping the prose tight. If you like fiction or (fictionalized) memoir that deals with the 1960s, family dynamics, coming of age, or growing up in Michigan, it behooves you to check these books out.
You can read more about both books on Sheila’s website – visit her site to read excerpts of both novels as well as an essay about Sheila’s relationship with her father Danny and his family. If you click on the book titles on her site you will be taken to Amazon to read more about how to purchase them.
I’ve given these books four stars for the general public; the stories are well-written and readers will want to keep going to find out how Ruth Ann fares and who gets their comeuppance. For Michigan readers, especially those familiar with West Michigan and Saginaw, I will add a star; there’s definitely a lot to be said for a book that uses the reader’s hometown haunts as backdrop for a good story.
Ruth Ann Bloomfield, the teen protagonist of the series whose engaging first-person narrative hooked me almost immediately, moved from Saginaw to Grand Rapids as a child but still has friends in Saginaw, so I got a nice dose of hometown reminiscing as I immersed myself in both books.
Ruth Ann shares her life – friends, cliques, boys, school, music, family, Catholicism, Judaism, and a disfiguring skin disease that causes both emotional and physical pain. As she deals with her condition, Ruth Ann learns who her friends are, and her experience rings very true for this reader who suffered with severe acne for many years. (The condition Ruth Ann has is not acne.)
For YA novels, both volumes are satisfyingly long, and the author lets Ruth Ann tell her story while keeping the prose tight. If you like fiction or (fictionalized) memoir that deals with the 1960s, family dynamics, coming of age, or growing up in Michigan, it behooves you to check these books out.
You can read more about both books on Sheila’s website – visit her site to read excerpts of both novels as well as an essay about Sheila’s relationship with her father Danny and his family. If you click on the book titles on her site you will be taken to Amazon to read more about how to purchase them.
I’ve given these books four stars for the general public; the stories are well-written and readers will want to keep going to find out how Ruth Ann fares and who gets their comeuppance. For Michigan readers, especially those familiar with West Michigan and Saginaw, I will add a star; there’s definitely a lot to be said for a book that uses the reader’s hometown haunts as backdrop for a good story.
September 8, 2024
So nostalgic, but good for any young adult of any generation!
I am a baby boomer and a nostalgia buff. I heard about this book, the story line of which takes place back in the 1960's, and decided I had to buy it. It didn't disappoint!! It is a real page-turner, an "I couldn't put it down," which I read in about two sittings. The characters are well developed, so well developed that it is hard to believe the story is fiction, but it is. All of the teenagers in the story are so typical that anybody can relate to them, no matter what generation they are from. I also bought the sequel, which has the same characters, thank God, because I have gotten attached to them, and I am in the middle of reading it now, and it also does not disappoint. I'm sure I'll be giving No Doubt in My Mind five stars like I have Gone By Spring. Buy and read!!!
I am a baby boomer and a nostalgia buff. I heard about this book, the story line of which takes place back in the 1960's, and decided I had to buy it. It didn't disappoint!! It is a real page-turner, an "I couldn't put it down," which I read in about two sittings. The characters are well developed, so well developed that it is hard to believe the story is fiction, but it is. All of the teenagers in the story are so typical that anybody can relate to them, no matter what generation they are from. I also bought the sequel, which has the same characters, thank God, because I have gotten attached to them, and I am in the middle of reading it now, and it also does not disappoint. I'm sure I'll be giving No Doubt in My Mind five stars like I have Gone By Spring. Buy and read!!!
July 13, 2022
Sheila Solomon Shotwell has written a marvelous book and I can’t wait to get my hands on her second one! She takes us on a ride with Ruth Ann ( who will steal your heart with all her shenanigans) and her six gal pals the tandem riders. We feel the growing pains of these teen girls and America in the late 1960’s. Solomon-Shotwell captures the essence of family, young love, friendship and the flare of her hometown and does it in a heartfelt and humorous way. I do not want to spoil anything but this book is a real winner. I encourage you to pick it up because once you do, you won’t want to put it down!
November 8, 2017
This book is a refreshing look at the trials of an early adolescent in the 60’s. It is so very honest and tender. Frankly, I could not put it down. The details, from fashion to music, made reading it pure joy. The trauma of dealing with a body that had to be “hidden” to avoid shame and potential loss of a love certainly hit home. I can’t wait for the sequel.
May 30, 2018
A nice slice of life that brings back many memories of the '60s. I think what I enjoyed most were the scenes where the energetic males show up and just take over with that reckless abandon and there's nothing little Ruth Ann can do to stop the inevitable chaos. They get her fired from her best babysitting job, they get her thrown out of a hospital, and of course there's the romantic rowboat rendezvous...I've seen how those male hormones can cause havoc. Sheila captures it very well with the perfect pacing so that everything is going along just fine and suddenly oooops! Nice debut novel.
January 28, 2018
A coming-of-age story that is so tender and sweet, it took me back to the butterflies of first crushes, the long wait of saving up babysitting money, neighborhood friends, and the agony of middle school social struggles. I highly recommend this to anyone!
November 18, 2018
Entertaining look into the life of an 8th grade girl who suddenly develops psoriasis and how she copes. Good young adult reading.
January 17, 2019
I’m so glad Mrs. Shotwell wrote this wonderful book. It’s incredibly good, and it’s a stitch! Highly recommended. I didn’t want to put it down! Looking forward to reading the sequel.
January 17, 2023
Wonderful!!
September 30, 2025
Another adult reader here! This book was a fascinating trip down memory lane for me. The timeline matched my life, and I could not put it down. The detailed description of each character forced me to remember people in my life that I had not recalled in many years. All the musical references, the must have fads and wardrobe items were so evocative of the time. Also, the feeling of independence to “go out” and shop with friends, outside of school, without parents. I highly recommend this book, it will deliver a nostalgic blast. I was so glad that I bought the follow up book”No doubt in my mind”, since I dearly wanted to find out what came next! Young adult readers would do well to read this- no phones, no videos, no internet but the same timeless struggles of growing into the sensitive teenage years.
Currently reading
February 22, 2018The importance of Gone Before Spring is that the protagonist, Ruth Ann, A thirteen year old girl, Survives and thrives despite social and physical afflictions. The eye of the beholder can be ruthless, and the one held may be defenseless, but Ruth Ann finds her way.
Most of us think sight is the most valuable of our senses, but skin is the larges sensory organ and the most important for human survival. Infants deprived of touch stop growing.
Touch is the first sense that develops in the fetus. Skin provides our first source of information about the external world. A thin sensitive membrane its the sole barrier between the outside world and our vulnerable inner self. the sense of touch, for good or bad, establishes our first bond. Between the pressure of sexual development and the growing awareness of social complexity an adolescent may be psychologically sensitive and fragile than an infant.
When Ruth Ann, becomes afflicted with a disfiguring skin disease, her budding sexuality and fragile self esteem are threatened. Gone Before Spring is more than a simple young adult novel about a teenage girl navigating the social instability of life in the sixties, it's an existential dilemma with universal relevance. What teenager hasn't doubted his or her attractiveness, sexual allure, and social acceptability.
Most of us think sight is the most valuable of our senses, but skin is the larges sensory organ and the most important for human survival. Infants deprived of touch stop growing.
Touch is the first sense that develops in the fetus. Skin provides our first source of information about the external world. A thin sensitive membrane its the sole barrier between the outside world and our vulnerable inner self. the sense of touch, for good or bad, establishes our first bond. Between the pressure of sexual development and the growing awareness of social complexity an adolescent may be psychologically sensitive and fragile than an infant.
When Ruth Ann, becomes afflicted with a disfiguring skin disease, her budding sexuality and fragile self esteem are threatened. Gone Before Spring is more than a simple young adult novel about a teenage girl navigating the social instability of life in the sixties, it's an existential dilemma with universal relevance. What teenager hasn't doubted his or her attractiveness, sexual allure, and social acceptability.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews