True to Form

Katie Nash—the beloved heroine of Elizabeth Berg's previous novels Durable Goods and Joy School —is thirteen years old in 1961, and she's facing a summer full of conflict. Her father has enlisted her in two care-taking jobs—baby-sitting for the rambunctious Wexler boys and, equally challenging, looking after Mrs. Randolph, her elderly, bedridden neighbor. To make matters worse, Katie has been forcibly inducted into the "loser" Girl Scout troop, compliments of her only new friend Cynthia's controlling mother. Her only saving grace is a trip to her childhood hometown in Texas, to visit her best friend Cherylanne. But people and places change—and Cherylanne is no exception. When an act of betrayal leaves Katie wondering just what friends are really for, she learns to rely on the only one left she can herself. Full of the joys, anguish, and innocence of American adolescence, True to Form is a story sure to make listeners remember and reflect on their own moments of discovery and self-definition.