A Wonderful, Terrible Time

by Mary Stolz, Louis S. Glanzman (Illustrator)

Two little Afro-American girls are enjoying a pleasant summer in New York City when they receive the unexpected gift of two weeks away at summer camp.

Genres: Fiction, Young Adult, Childrens

Library Binding

First published June 1, 1967

About the author

Mary Stolz was a noted author for children and adolescents whose novels earned critical praise for the seriousness with which they took the problems of young people. Two of her books ''Belling the Tiger'' (1961) and ''The Noonday Friends'' (1965), were named Newbery Honor books by the ALA but it was her novels for young adults that combined romance with realistic situations that won devotion from her fans. Young men often created more problems and did not always provide happy ever after endings. Her heroines had to cope with complex situations and learn how to take action whether it was working as nurses (The Organdy Cupcakes), living in a housing project (Ready or Not), or escaping from being a social misfit by working for the summer as a waitress (The Sea Gulls Woke Me).

Reviews

[Elisabeth M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some books try very hard to be quality. This one just is.

It's one of my childhood reads, and I picked it up the other day as "comfort food," expecting I'd probably be less impressed with it now than I was when I was a kid. I was wrong. It's a perceptive, unpretentious story about life as usual, about having the courage to decide for yourself, and about how the same situation can mean a whole different world to each person involved. It's a story about letting life be good.

It's funny to go back to your old books and find the lines that shaped the perspectives you still hold today. Some of the images in this book burrowed deep inside me back then, and I had forgotten where they came from till now.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like most Mary Stolz books I've read, I liked this but thought it was kind of odd. Weirdly off balance, because it seems like it's going to be one kind of book (city/civil rights/poor people having fun) and suddenly turns into another (summer camp) and never goes back. It was written at an interesting time, just before Martin Luther King Jr. was killed, so the characters a. obviously don't know that's going to happen and b. seem to assume (as kids would) that the current civil rights struggle was going to stretch on in the same way throughout their lifetimes.

[CLM · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mady and Sue Ellen are girls from NYC who are unexpectedly offered the chance to attend summer camp, when Sue Ellen's father saves a man from injury. Camp offers an alien world to both girls but where Mady tentatively enjoys and begins to appreciate nature (unlike moi), Sue Ellen is suspicious and wary of the campers and longs to be back home. Not a typical camp story but shows how Stolz moved away from YA in the later years of her career to explore urban and racial issues.

[Shirly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a gem of a book. The simple, lovely descriptions of childhood, of being a black girl growing up in a poor New York City neighborhood... the era the book was written in, the mid 60s, really shines through. The quick changes in mood and how vivid everything is for the two protagonists of the book is really amazing. I wish I had access to the rest of her books so I could read them quickly. I'd recommend this to anyone who wants to read a tale of childhood.

[Tiffany Reynolds · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book when I was ten or eleven, and it was interesting to revisit it as an adult. Published in 1967, the story centers around two African American girls who live in New York and have never left their neighborhood except for the occasional field trip at school. Mady, who feels like the central character for the first half of the book, lives with her mother, who works hard as a single parent and nurse; her father died in a civil rights protest. (I'm sure this part went right over my head as a kid.) Sue Ellen has a slightly more comfortable home life, her mother staying home and her father making a living as a cab driver. One day, after her father swerves to avoid hitting a pedestrian, the man shows up at Sue Ellen's...a wealthy white man, as the girls note. He wants to repay Sue Ellen's father for the favor, and offers both girls an opportunity to spend two weeks at a camp his acquaintance owns.
This is where the shift in the girls' friendship, and also in their perspectives, takes place. Mady, usually the shy follower, yearns to go to the country where she can be around animals and nature, while Sue Ellen, the take-charge girl, is terrified at the thought. Both girls end up going, and the shift of power in their friendship is interesting to see.
What I remember reading as a kid: a dramatic story about the ups and downs of 10-year-old friendship, where girls are mean to their friends and then make up; also the line, "She's grumpy enough, John knows."
What I noticed as an adult: the contrast between privileged white people and the two girls, as well as discussions about whether or not they'd want to be white; how friends can grow apart and still remain friends; and the importance of family. I love this book and love the title, which is perfect.

[Reader66 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-read of a childhood favorite that I found surprisingly perceptive.