We're Going Steady

Patty and Ginger #1

by Janet Lambert

Patty Palmer thinks she has found an instant solution to having a date for every occasion: going steady with Steve Harding! Patty's parents, on the other hand, are none too certain that a high school freshman is a suitable candidate for steady dating.

182 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1958

About the author

Janet Lambert, born in Crawfordsville, Indiana, was a popular girls' story author from 1941 through 1969 (and beyond to today). She wrote 54 books during that time about a number of different girls and their families. Her most popular series were about the Parrishes and the Jordons. These stories, and many of her other series, became entwined as the various characters met each other, married, and then had children of their own!

Janet, having an interest in both the theater and writing, decided to write her own plays in which to act. She did achieve her goal and appeared on Broadway. When she married a career Army officer, her life on stage came to a close, but her stories were still flowing. Knowing well the "life of the Army," many of Ms. Lambert's books are set on Army posts throughout the United States.

Legend has it that her stories started as bedtime stories for her children while they were overseas. Each night, the author would tell the next "installment" of the series. Later, after her kids were grown, she penned one of her stories (Star Spangled Summer) and—according to legend—it was sold to a publisher the very day after she sent it to them.

Reviews

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have loved every Lambert book that I've read but this one is just okay. The whole premise of the book is that 14 year-olds should not "go steady". Patty Palmer, the protagonist, is a brat. She is happy to "go steady" with Steve because it's convenient to have a guy when you need a date for an event. However, when things go wrong and Patty finds herself not invited to events that are not for couples, she isn't happy. She has a lot of learning to do. However, I'm now reading the second book in the series and she did not learn much at all.

I also thought it odd that rather than talk things over with Patty's father, her mother talked them over with Patty's brother Doug, who was a H.S. senior. It seems to me that he wouldn't be much more mature than Patty! With college ahead of him and his girlfriend they talk about marriage. And like the younger kids, they have a fight and break up for a short while.