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Fancy Free
Frivolous Francesca Jones decides on impulse to go with her archaeologist father to Peru for the summer. Dr. Jones is taking a group of students on an expedition high in the Andes. Fancy begins to regret her decision as soon as she meets all these studious types, but by then the plane is in the air.
Used to a kind of lazy life, Fancy, once in Peru, is amazed to find her mind stretching along with her muscles, as she learns the difference between a boy with charm and a boy with character; the care and feeding of a baby llama; and how not only to get along with eggheads, but to like them!
Used to a kind of lazy life, Fancy, once in Peru, is amazed to find her mind stretching along with her muscles, as she learns the difference between a boy with charm and a boy with character; the care and feeding of a baby llama; and how not only to get along with eggheads, but to like them!
- GenresYoung Adult
144 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1961
35 people want to read
About the author
Betty Cavanna
99 books61 followersAmerican juvenile author (full name: Elizabeth Allen) Betty Cavanna suffered from a crippling disease, infantile paralysis, as a child, which she eventually overcame with treatment and exercise. During her convalescence, attentive adults read to her until she was old enough to read to herself, beginning a long love affair with books.
Cavanna majored in journalism at the New Jersey College for Women in New Brunswick, from where she received the Bachelor of Letters degree in 1929. She also took art classes in New York and Philadelphia. Cavanna's first job was as a reporter for the Bayonne Times. In 1931 she joined the staff of the Westminster Press in Philadelphia and over the next ten years served as advertising manager and art director. She also wrote and sold material to Methodist and Baptist publishing firms. In 1940 she married Edward Talman Headley, with whom she had a son. They moved to Philadelphia. After her husband's death, she married George Russell Harrison, a university dean of science, as well as nonfiction writer, in 1957. He died in 1979.
Cavanna became a full-time writer in 1941. Since then she has written more than seventy books under the name of Betty Cavanna as well as two pseudonyms: Betsy Allen, under which she wrote the "Connie Blair Mystery" series, and Elizabeth Headley, under which she wrote several books, including the Diane stories. As Betty Cavanna she also published the nonfiction "Around the World Today" about young people living in various countries.
Cavanna's juvenile fiction, about the difficulties of adolescenc, appealed to generations of teenage girls. Her characters confronted loneliness, sibling rivalries, divorce, and tense mother-daughter relationships. Her books, although characterized as pleasant, conventional, and stereotyped, have been extremely popular and recommended by critics for their attention to subjects which have reflected girls' interests. Going on Sixteen and Secret Passage were Spring Book Festival honor books in 1946 and 1947.
In the 1970s Cavanna turned to writing mysteries, which she termed "escape fiction," because she said she felt out of sync with the problems of modern teenagers. Two of her books have been runners-up for the Edgar Allan Poe Award: Spice Island Mystery in 1970 and the Ghost of Ballyhooly in 1972.
She died in France (2001).
Cavanna majored in journalism at the New Jersey College for Women in New Brunswick, from where she received the Bachelor of Letters degree in 1929. She also took art classes in New York and Philadelphia. Cavanna's first job was as a reporter for the Bayonne Times. In 1931 she joined the staff of the Westminster Press in Philadelphia and over the next ten years served as advertising manager and art director. She also wrote and sold material to Methodist and Baptist publishing firms. In 1940 she married Edward Talman Headley, with whom she had a son. They moved to Philadelphia. After her husband's death, she married George Russell Harrison, a university dean of science, as well as nonfiction writer, in 1957. He died in 1979.
Cavanna became a full-time writer in 1941. Since then she has written more than seventy books under the name of Betty Cavanna as well as two pseudonyms: Betsy Allen, under which she wrote the "Connie Blair Mystery" series, and Elizabeth Headley, under which she wrote several books, including the Diane stories. As Betty Cavanna she also published the nonfiction "Around the World Today" about young people living in various countries.
Cavanna's juvenile fiction, about the difficulties of adolescenc, appealed to generations of teenage girls. Her characters confronted loneliness, sibling rivalries, divorce, and tense mother-daughter relationships. Her books, although characterized as pleasant, conventional, and stereotyped, have been extremely popular and recommended by critics for their attention to subjects which have reflected girls' interests. Going on Sixteen and Secret Passage were Spring Book Festival honor books in 1946 and 1947.
In the 1970s Cavanna turned to writing mysteries, which she termed "escape fiction," because she said she felt out of sync with the problems of modern teenagers. Two of her books have been runners-up for the Edgar Allan Poe Award: Spice Island Mystery in 1970 and the Ghost of Ballyhooly in 1972.
She died in France (2001).
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 11, 2024
Bought this after taking a quick glance at the jacket and endpapers. This is not my usual fare, but it looked like it might be more educational than most books of its kind.
The author made a trip to Peru and took the opportunity to turn her own experiences into a vacation story for young Francesca Jones, 16-year-old daughter of an archaeology professor who is taking a small group of students on a dig. I was hoping for some good Inca history and culture to be incorporated into a lightweight breezy romance and was not disappointed.
I wasn't especially thrilled with some of the period attitudes - the plain jane friend is persuaded to do her hair and wear makeup in order to get a boy to notice her. Frivolous Francesca has too much influence. There are lots of compromises on all sides by the end of the book, which isn't such a good thing as far as I am concerned.
I don't believe there are many other Cavannas with this much added educational material - seems like the only thing that makes the other books distinctive is change of location.
The author made a trip to Peru and took the opportunity to turn her own experiences into a vacation story for young Francesca Jones, 16-year-old daughter of an archaeology professor who is taking a small group of students on a dig. I was hoping for some good Inca history and culture to be incorporated into a lightweight breezy romance and was not disappointed.
I wasn't especially thrilled with some of the period attitudes - the plain jane friend is persuaded to do her hair and wear makeup in order to get a boy to notice her. Frivolous Francesca has too much influence. There are lots of compromises on all sides by the end of the book, which isn't such a good thing as far as I am concerned.
I don't believe there are many other Cavannas with this much added educational material - seems like the only thing that makes the other books distinctive is change of location.
July 13, 2018
Although I usually love Betty Cavanna's books that are set in exotic foreign places, this book left much to be desired. In fact, it took me a long time to read it.
Francesca (Fancy) Jones decides to accompany her father to Peru on an archeology dig. Fancy is a good name for her. She's rather vain and well, an airhead. She immediately falls for one of the younger archeologists and sets out to impress him. However, she quickly learns that perhaps he isn't all that he seems. I did love the few glimpses we saw of the Peruvian mountains and I liked the part of the story where she helped rescue a baby lama and raises him.
Francesca (Fancy) Jones decides to accompany her father to Peru on an archeology dig. Fancy is a good name for her. She's rather vain and well, an airhead. She immediately falls for one of the younger archeologists and sets out to impress him. However, she quickly learns that perhaps he isn't all that he seems. I did love the few glimpses we saw of the Peruvian mountains and I liked the part of the story where she helped rescue a baby lama and raises him.
April 4, 2025
This is a super cute story, though dated in its attitude in several incidents. It isn't anything extraordinary, but it does have okay characterization and introduces several facts about Peru in a natural way. I didn't appreciate the way a situation with one of the characters lying was handled near the end. They didn't end up telling her father about it because they didn't want to look like tattle tales, when in reality he needed to be stopped because what he was doing was jeopardizing their expedition as well as hurting the Peruvian people as a whole. Overall, it struck me as very of its time, and not in a good way.
April 6, 2019
An absolute delight. Pure joy. My eyes are still sparkling. I don't even know what to say, I was just so enchanted by the mood and the setting and the characters and the writing style on every page from cover to cover.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews