Country Girl, City Girl Book

An honest and open look at a young girl experiencing and questioning her sexual awakening.

Phoebe Sharp lives on a small farm in Maine, where she reads fairy tales to her goats and snaps pictures with her Instamatic camera. Phoebe doesn’t have a single friend, never mind a boyfriend. Then she meets Melita. With her caramel-colored skin, stylish clothes, and urban attitude, Melita seems as different from Phoebe as two teenage girls could be.
But over the summer, the girls grow to know each other. As their friendship develops, so do other, more confusing feelings. Could their friendship be deepening into something more?

“[This novel] will appeal to fans of Nancy Garden’s Annie on My Mind.”—VOYA

“[Lisa Jahn-Clough’s] descriptions of Phoebe’s colliding emotions ring true.”—Publishers Weekly

Cynthia Winfield - VOYA

Sheltered on a small farm in rural Maine, Phoebe finds that the summer preceding eighth grade is becoming fuller than she could have imagined when olive-skinned Melita comes from New York City to stay. Initially Phoebe's world consists of her father, a sweet man still grieving for Phoebe's long-deceased mother; her older brother, Paul; Michael, who helps out on the farm; her Instamatic camera; and animals. She reads to Petunia, the pregnant nanny goat, daily. Then Gerelyn, her mom's best friend from college, phones seeking a place for her daughter, Melita, while Gerelyn is institutionalized. About the only thing that Phoebe knows of her mother is that they share the same flaming-red hair, but Gerelyn provides a link to a time when her mother was alive. When Melita brings city views to the farm, Phoebe grows in unexpected ways. Long sweet on older Michael, she is unprepared to find herself falling for Melita after a simple practice kiss, and jealous when a visit to New York finds Melita interested in a boy. With no female mentor in whom to confide, Phoebe sorts through her confusion alone. Although at the very end Phoebe develops self-awareness and understanding beyond her years, the conclusion is satisfying as she reflects on all that she has learned in two months. Smoothly told, with feminist sensibilities and references to Grimms' Fairy Tales, this novel engages readers with a fully developed protagonist who demands sympathy from her reader. It will appeal to fans of Nancy Garden's Annie on My Mind (Farrar Straus Giroux, 1982/VOYA August 1982). VOYA CODES: 4Q 3P M J S (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses; Will appeal with pushing; Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8;Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12). 2004, Walter Lorraine Books/Houghton Mifflin, 176p., $15. Ages 11 to 18.