First a Dream - Softcover

Grade 6-10-- Retta Caldwell and her family have relocated to California from Pennsylvania, and she is delighted that her boyfriend from back home, Dallas Dobson, has landed a summer job on a nearby ranch. Daly's depiction of their blossoming relationship is sensitive and poignant, as Retta and Dallas savor their limited time together and apprehensively anticipate the future. Details of Retta's work at her father's newspaper and Dallas' life on the ranch are nicely integrated into this bittersweet love story that practically squeaks, so clean is it of sex, profanity, or suggestive scenes. The book is the sequel to Acts of Love (Scholastic, 1987) , and several passages are lifted straight from the earlier book. Retta and Dallas are well-drawn characters, but Retta's parents and brother remain wooden and two-dimensional. The book's major flaw is its fairy tale ending, which takes the plot from a realistic look at Retta and Dallas' impending separation and sends it spinning off into La-La Land. Retta suddenly inherits property in Pennsylvania, and the will stipulates she must live on it for two years. After some affected agonizing over leaving her family--discredited by Daly's lack of developing her relationship with them--Retta jumps at the chance to rejoin Dallas. A realistic resolution this is not, but teens caught up in Retta's situation will enjoy fantasizing about her incredibly good fortune. --Joyce Adams Burner, formerly at Spring Hill Middle School, KS
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In this sequel to Acts of Love , a girl faces sundry trials and tribulations when her family moves to California to start a small-town newspaper and her boyfriend follows, taking a summer job at a nearby ranch. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.