Sorority Girl

Sally & Jean Burnaby #3

by Anne Emery

It is a big moment in Jean Burrnaby's life when she is asked to join her high school sorority, the Nightingales. For a while sorority life is a dream come true, but Jean discovers joining a sorority isn't quite what she thought it would be. Jean sees both sides of sororities: the heartbreak of being left out and the disillusionment of being "in." She, ultimately, makes a decision that astonishes Sherwood High.

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1958

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Anne Emery was born Anne Eleanor McGuigan, in Fargo, North Dakota, and moved to Evanston, Illinois, when she was nine years old. Miss McGuigan attended Evanston Township High School and Northwestern University. Following her graduation from college, her father, a university professor, took the family of five children abroad for a year, where they visited his birthplace in Northern Ireland, as well as the British Isles, France, Switzerland, and Italy. Miss McGuigan spent nine months studying at the University of Grenoble in France. She taught seventh and eighth grades for four years in the Evanston Schools, and fourth and fifth grades for six more years after her marriage to John Emery. She retired from teaching to care for her husband and five children, Mary, Kate, Joan, Robert, and Martha.

Anne Emery wrote books and short stories for teen girls throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Her understanding of the lives of teenaged girls creates believable stories and characters that are readable and re-readable!

Reviews

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was book #3 in Emery's series about the Burnaby sisters. The first two books were about the older girl, Sally. This one is about the second sister, Jean. Jean wants to belong in high school. All the most popular girls belong to the Nightingales, a sorority. This confused me because it's a service club officiated to a hospital club but this sorority had nothing to do with nursing and the only service they provided was selling tickets to make money for their own events. Jean gets into the club and suddenly she has no time for anything except the club, where she has to think like everyone and act like everyone. She loses her boyfriend, good old comfortable Jeff over it. Her new boyfriend, Tom, she neither likes nor respects but she is expected to date him every Saturday night. Eventually Jean has to stop and take stock of her life and then make some important decisions about her life, her friends, and high school in general. I didn't like this book as much as the first two. I found parts of it too slow.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoy every Anne Emery book but was irritated for several reasons by this one.
For starters, I get invested in the life of Sally and then in book three we switch to her sister Jean? Where Jean was likeable in the first two books as the sister, she's not very likeable as the main character. I hadn't gotten the feeling from the other books that she was self absorbed or just wanting to be popular.

I had no idea that there were high school sororities. It was a frustrating read, and I felt like it took Jean awhile to stand up for herself, but I appreciated that she finally did.

[Sarah TheAromaofBooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Also, this is book #3, not book #5 as GR lists it.

This was actually a really good read with some grit to it as Jean learns important life lessons. These books are really wholesome without being over-the-top.

Note: You can read my review of the whole series on my blog - https://thearomaofbooks.wordpress.com...

[Adrienne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the character of Jean, although the plot was a fairly standard one for books about this time. I also liked the home and family dynamics.

[Kili · Rating 4 out of 5]

Teen reads continue - one of the better ones

[Shelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jean is great - at first, when you could see how totally pear shaped the year was going to get, I just wanted to skip ahead to where she'd have sense, but I got sucked in by her. She's fab and I am so annoyed that the next two of her books are only in storage in Berwyn. SIGH. I have to see if I can get them from some other library system, but that's harder.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-read November 2002.