What I Really Think of You

by M.E. Kerr

Opal Ringer, daughter of a Pentecoastal preacher, knows that she is different from other kids and yearns to achieve her desires while remaining true to her beliefs.

Genres: Young Adult

224 pages, Paperback

First published April 5, 1983

About the author

M. E. Kerr was born Marijane Meaker in Auburn, New York. Her interest in writing began with her father, who loved to read, and her mother, who loved to tell stories of neighborhood gossip. Unable to find an agent to represent her work, Meaker became her own agent, and wrote articles and books under a series of pseudonyms: Vin Packer, Ann Aldrich, Laura Winston, M.E. Kerr, and Mary James. As M.E. Kerr, Meaker has produced over twenty novels for young adults and won multiple awards, including the Margaret A. Edwards Award for her lifetime contribution to young adult literature.

Reviews

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is really Opal Ringer’s story, and it takes place in a culture different from mine, that of evangelical Christian churches. Although there is not the level of drama as in S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders, and it is set in late 1980s upstate New York and not 1960s Tulsa, I saw parallels in groups of church organization insiders and outsiders with the socs and greasers of Ponyboy Curtis’s world. I enjoyed being an invisible guest in Opal’s household, watching their everyday life, and in being part of their position as outsiders in this branch of Protestant Christianity organized religion. The first chapter was fun to read as I was introduced to the family: Opal’s brother and father in an argument at the breakfast table over who would get which new bumper sticker, her mother who spoke in tongues, their household. Descriptions of the tangible aspects of their lives and their cultural practices were written mostly in Opal’s voice, but others’ as well. How fascinating it was to read about the family that had “arrived” and whose parents had their own television show - how should they dress, and present themselves? At the end, when Opal tells us what she really thinks of us, she is explaining - simply and indirectly, as she is speaking only for herself - what is really fundamental to fundamentalist belief.