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Dinny Gordon #4
Dinny Gordon, Senior
In her senior year at Rosemont High, Dinny finds out about love at first sight. The boy is Steve Denison, a freshman at Rosemont College. But she also finds out that in love, there can be a lot more of giving than receiving. Dinny learns to handle the conflicts of love, school, and the future. And throughout her senior year, Dinny plans for her summer tour of sites of ancient history in the Mediterranean and then classes at the university in the fall. Another nice constant in her life is the support of Brad Kenyon...
158 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
1 person is currently reading
31 people want to read
About the author
Anne Emery
80 books33 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 - 17 of 17 reviews
August 7, 2017
Oftentimes, it's very hard to get through a book when you know the main character is heading down the wrong path, and that's the case here, with Dinny and a new love interest, Steve, who is a "mixed-up" college student. Signs of being mixed-up include a disinclination for studying, wanting to rush off and join the Peace Corps, and being concerned about the war in Vietnam. We're not in the 1950s anymore, Toto. The first Dinny book was published in 1959, and felt quintessentially "malt-shop" to me, light hearted and frothy. This one was published in 1965, and while I wouldn't go so far as to call it a "problem novel" I feel I can sense a movement in that direction in the author's intentions (this was also the case in third book, which dealt, a little awkwardly, with the weighty topic of antisemitism). The first book, which largely concerned Dinny's attempts to avoid Clyde, a pretentious senior who in his ponderous way has taken a shine to her, was simply amusing. Here, the depiction of a relationship growing gradually and inexorably more controlling and demanding was not so much fun. I gave it four stars though, because I was interested throughout and because I was sad at the end there wasn't a fifth Dinny book to pick up right away.
A minor note that amused me: author Anne Emery got her seven-sisters colleges mixed up. Dinny's rather boy-crazy friend Sue reluctantly applies to Wellesley, her traditional-minded grandmother's alma mater, but becomes cheerful about going at the prospect of all the nearby cadets at West Point. She is in for a sad disappointment!
A minor note that amused me: author Anne Emery got her seven-sisters colleges mixed up. Dinny's rather boy-crazy friend Sue reluctantly applies to Wellesley, her traditional-minded grandmother's alma mater, but becomes cheerful about going at the prospect of all the nearby cadets at West Point. She is in for a sad disappointment!
April 7, 2015
A strong finish to this excellent series although I didn't enjoy it as much as Dinny's Freshman or Junior years. In her Senior Year, Dinny falls in love (much harder than her maybe-love with Curt). The object of her affection is Steve, a Rosemont (college) student whose passion for human rights and current events sometimes causes him to drift in his studies. Steve's true desire is to help the poor in Africa but he is told he must finish college first. Though he is intellectual and passionate about something (just like Dinny), they are at odds over their chosen fields. Steve can't understand why Dinny would be interested in ancient history when such important things (starving children in Africa, Viet Nam looming on the horizon) need attention in the here and now. Dinny struggles to appreciate Africa in the way Steve does, but it just doesn't capture her heart the way Ancient Greece and Rome and Egypt do. Perhaps this wouldn't be such a problem if Steve weren't also a jealous type, tugging at Dinny to change her course of study and her chosen college to join him in his adventures. Yet Emery doesn't make him completely awful--he does have good qualities and it is this mix between his admirable side and the jealous, unsympathetic side that keeps tugging at Dinny throughout most of her year. Not to mention that she genuinely feels she is in love with him. But Dinny has to learn that true love doesn't put shackles on you, it lets you be the best version of your true self. I won't add any spoilers as to whether Dinny and Steve come to an understanding with one another in order for this to happen.
Although it is quite realistic that Dinny's first real relationship would so preoccupy her, I did get a bit tired of it and wanted to know more about her studies, what her friends were doing, and just to get some of the multifaceted Dinny back that I came to love in the earlier books. Fortunately, the ending satisfied me and even included a hint at something very nice for her future that I had thought/hoped would happen based on something that happened in Dinny's sophomore year.
Although it is quite realistic that Dinny's first real relationship would so preoccupy her, I did get a bit tired of it and wanted to know more about her studies, what her friends were doing, and just to get some of the multifaceted Dinny back that I came to love in the earlier books. Fortunately, the ending satisfied me and even included a hint at something very nice for her future that I had thought/hoped would happen based on something that happened in Dinny's sophomore year.
February 7, 2015
Dinny Gordon has got to be one of the best written role models for young girls that I have had the pleasure of reading. How shocking this must have been in its day....a girl who in her teens is independent, has set goals for herself and does not want to sacrifice all for a man. Dinny falls in love in her senior year and is really tested. For the first time, she capitulates to a boyfriend's ego and questions what she really wants out of life. Anne Emery does not make the boy, Steve, that Dinny falls for a jerk. That would be too easy. And we know our Dinny would not fall so hard for an out and out jerk. Instead, she realistically paints a picture of two people who have contrasting characteristics. I think the world would be a better place if girls honestly assessed themselves as Dinny eventually could not help herself from doing. It's not love if your goals, needs and wants are slowly but surely diminished.
October 12, 2007
This is probably my favorite of the Dinny Gordon books--the first one where I really believed she was "real". Her boyfriend's a jerk, but a "real" jerk.
December 20, 2010
GAH. I read the flap about her falling in love with Steve (although the flap called him George) and was NOT HAPPY. The whole time, I wanted her to dump stupid Steve for darling Brad and augh. As I said earlier, I love Dinny's love of history and her ambitions and it was hard to see her losing interest because of Steve. (Not that I got emotionally invested in this series this afternoon or anything, right?) I was so jealous of her archaeology programs and the summer internship and my God, that tour she saved all four years for. SO COOL. But, oh, Wendy, please tell me there's a fifth book. I want my emotional romantic payoff, dang it. But I will turn to Yuletide next year if I must.
August 27, 2013
Dinny meets and starts dating Steve, a charming freshman at Rosemont College. Feeling special and needed is part of the appeal of this romance for Dinny. But the relationship with Steve becomes time-comsuming and at times, overwhelming. And Dinny may be needed but Steve seems needy.
I liked the way Anne Emery wrapped up Dinny's story. A fifth novel, covering Dinny's European tour, would have been wonderful!!
The fourth and final book of the Dinny Gordan series.
I liked the way Anne Emery wrapped up Dinny's story. A fifth novel, covering Dinny's European tour, would have been wonderful!!
The fourth and final book of the Dinny Gordan series.
September 28, 2025
A Disappointment in the Series
Spoiler alert
This is, in my opinion, the worst one in the Dinny Gordon series. It’s very obvious that the guy who is the main male lead is a jerk. It’s unpleasant to just red about all the jerky things he does and that Dinny puts up with. The end feels like a bit of a cop out—does Dinny have to end up with a guy, and if so, can it be someone closer to her in age? It sort of felt like a rebound, & the whole book is way too similar in certain ways than the Burnaby series. The book also hardly ever mentions one of the lead characters (Blythe), in terms of what she’s doing or her interacting with the other three: I don’t even think she is mentioned at all more than a handful of times and not like the Dinny’s other friends, or even like she’s part of their crowd. It’s almost as though she doesn’t exist.
The other books were better and, I felt, tackled more important topics than Dinny getting derailed over and over by a complete jerk. For someone who had the insight not to date all these other guys who are jerky or just totally wrong, Dinny seems to have suddenly forgotten all that. Also, guy who “forgets” Valentine’s Day is a hard no, and he had so much other terrible behavior and so many other red flags (like trying to make her change her goals/dreams/entire life) to have made it obvious that he wasn’t worth the time of day. The author spends so much time in three other books and parts of this one building up Dinny’s dream and hard work spent to gong abroad: it’s preposterous to even float the idea of that not happening, much less her not going to a college she chose after a summer there and not being aloud to talk to another guy, even though he’s a longtime family friend. It was also hard to read him making her into his secretary and tutor, and her going along with it unless her parents told her she couldn’t . A frustrating last book in an otherwise decent series, with an ending tacked on that’s too much. Why couldn’t she be single when she graduates? Why would she date a 24-year-old? Why would she think about skipping her senior prom, which she really wanted to go to? Really a disappointing end to the series.
Spoiler alert
This is, in my opinion, the worst one in the Dinny Gordon series. It’s very obvious that the guy who is the main male lead is a jerk. It’s unpleasant to just red about all the jerky things he does and that Dinny puts up with. The end feels like a bit of a cop out—does Dinny have to end up with a guy, and if so, can it be someone closer to her in age? It sort of felt like a rebound, & the whole book is way too similar in certain ways than the Burnaby series. The book also hardly ever mentions one of the lead characters (Blythe), in terms of what she’s doing or her interacting with the other three: I don’t even think she is mentioned at all more than a handful of times and not like the Dinny’s other friends, or even like she’s part of their crowd. It’s almost as though she doesn’t exist.
The other books were better and, I felt, tackled more important topics than Dinny getting derailed over and over by a complete jerk. For someone who had the insight not to date all these other guys who are jerky or just totally wrong, Dinny seems to have suddenly forgotten all that. Also, guy who “forgets” Valentine’s Day is a hard no, and he had so much other terrible behavior and so many other red flags (like trying to make her change her goals/dreams/entire life) to have made it obvious that he wasn’t worth the time of day. The author spends so much time in three other books and parts of this one building up Dinny’s dream and hard work spent to gong abroad: it’s preposterous to even float the idea of that not happening, much less her not going to a college she chose after a summer there and not being aloud to talk to another guy, even though he’s a longtime family friend. It was also hard to read him making her into his secretary and tutor, and her going along with it unless her parents told her she couldn’t . A frustrating last book in an otherwise decent series, with an ending tacked on that’s too much. Why couldn’t she be single when she graduates? Why would she date a 24-year-old? Why would she think about skipping her senior prom, which she really wanted to go to? Really a disappointing end to the series.
January 14, 2022
Anne Emery was a favorite of mine when I was in my teens and some 50 years later I find I still enjoy her books and find, unlike some teen novels that they aged rather well. Dinny Gordon Senior was written toward the end of the malt shop era and there some clumsy attends to insert the modern (Peace Corps, Africa, SE Asia) which feel a bit awkward . The rest of the novel is pure malt shop - romance, heart break and of course culminating in the Senior Prom.
Dinny is unlike (and thus more likeable) than most Malt Shop heroines in that she better ambitions than dating the boy next door. She wants to go aboard and study archeology and by dint of hard work and planning she reaches her goals. This is despite falling in love with a very narcissistic man who breaks her heart even as she realizes he's all wrong for her.
Fun read - and since it's now on Kindle you won't have to scour used bookstores hoping to find a copy.
Dinny is unlike (and thus more likeable) than most Malt Shop heroines in that she better ambitions than dating the boy next door. She wants to go aboard and study archeology and by dint of hard work and planning she reaches her goals. This is despite falling in love with a very narcissistic man who breaks her heart even as she realizes he's all wrong for her.
Fun read - and since it's now on Kindle you won't have to scour used bookstores hoping to find a copy.
July 11, 2023
It didn’t make sense
I was disappointed in this final installment of the Dinny Gordon books. It was obvious from their first date that Dinny and Steve were not right for each other. For being a high school girl who was supposed to be “different,” why was she willing to throw away everything she had wanted just for a boy? I wish the author had made Steve more like-able and hadn’t had Dinny distance herself from her friends and the Y club. The book was too much turmoil, and not enough enjoyment of Dinny and her senior year.
I was disappointed in this final installment of the Dinny Gordon books. It was obvious from their first date that Dinny and Steve were not right for each other. For being a high school girl who was supposed to be “different,” why was she willing to throw away everything she had wanted just for a boy? I wish the author had made Steve more like-able and hadn’t had Dinny distance herself from her friends and the Y club. The book was too much turmoil, and not enough enjoyment of Dinny and her senior year.
May 17, 2021
How I hated for this series to end! This is one of the few vintage YA series where the protagonist was a high achiever and not apologetic, popular but not inane, an age-appropriate girlfriend and not a pushover. I wish Anne Emery had followed her into college!
October 29, 2022
Personal copy
I'm just bitter because Dinny probably got a job teaching Latin, and I was only able to stay in the field for four years. Of course, in 2022, Dinny would be about 80!
I'm just bitter because Dinny probably got a job teaching Latin, and I was only able to stay in the field for four years. Of course, in 2022, Dinny would be about 80!
April 14, 2024
Had to re-read. One of my favorites from my teen years.
March 29, 2015
My least favorite of this series because I kept wanting to shake some sense into Dinny. Rather than running screaming from shitty user Steve, my formerly fearless Dinny thinks she's in luuurve with the dickhead. I hated Steve with a passion -- the scene where he ordered Dinny's lunch in the restaurant and then buckles her boots for her made me stabby. She's not a toddler, asshole. I missed Dinny in this one. There were flashes of her former independence but they were mostly subsumed in annoying and rage-inducing Steve drama.
July 27, 2023
This book concludes Anne Emery's four-part series about a high school girl. It is a very satisfying ending to Dinny's high school career and leaves the reader wishing for more insight into her life after high school. Anne Emery did an excellent job of acknowledging the very real challenges facing teenagers (sexual attraction, cliques, substance use, inferiority, feeling left out, and so on) without being inappropriate.
March 22, 2020
Re-read of a childhood favorite. I think Dinny was supposed to be a progressively modern young woman when this was written, but in this book (and as signaled by her portrait on the cover), the author had her behaving in decidedly conventional, old-fashioned ways. I'd probably give this 2-stars if I were reading it for the first time today.
April 1, 2007
My all-time favorite young adult chick-lit series. It was already old when I read it as a high student in the 1970s, but it still seemed relevant to me. Dinny had the perfect balance between social grace and brainy nerdiness. I wanted to be her.
June 8, 2009
My favorite of the Dinny books and the one with the most meat for my project. Will she or won't she go on her trip to Europe? Will she dump her intellectual vampire of a boyfriend?
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews