It's hard not to be charmed by anything written by the beloved author Beverly Cleary. I've recently read or re-read several of her teen novels now, and it's fun to travel back in time to the early 1960s, my grade school years, which I remember more clearly now with these books, which are as delicious as a just opened pound box of See's chocolates. I chose See's, rather than Russell Stover or Whitman's, because these books are set in Northern California, where See's originates.
Sister of the Bride follows sixteen-year-old Barbara as she navigates the social and family waters once her eighteen-year-old sister Rosemary announces her engagement. Rosemary is a freshman at the University of California (Berkeley, presumably), and is still wearing braces on her teeth, so it's a bit much to take in. Barbara, while stunned at the announcement, immediately embarks on a series of fantasies of her upcoming role in the wedding, and of her own sometime in the unknown future. Their parents are concerned and their father, in particular, needs to be won over.
Rosemary has suddenly gone from being a fluffy impractical teenager to the verge of being a hip young woman, who now prefers handmade pottery, earthy colors and sophisticated clothing to her former style. No registering for silver or china for her – she's modern. Barbara works hard to take in this change.
At the same time Barbara is dealing with the travails of high school, trying to manage the beginning of her own love life with two boys in the picture, and squabbling with her annoying younger brother.
There are quite a few amusing yet poignant scenes in the book as Rosemary prepares for the altar, including one in which she brings Barbara to her future apartment, in a building which she and her slightly older but still young husband will manage in order to keep expenses down while they complete their studies. It's quite a dreadful, rundown student building but Rosemary is game to make it work. It somehow lacks the charm of the Greenwich Village building of the play and movie Barefoot in the Park, but it is reminiscent, being set in the same period.
The parents are won over, wedding plans are set, Rosemary falls for the traditional appeal of her grandmother's gorgeous lace veil and wears a white dress rather than the practical suit she planned on. Barbara discovers which boy is the one she wants, and it all works out in the end, with an abundance of humor and joy.
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