WAIT FOR ME

by Susan Richards Shreve, Amy Cohn (Editor), Diane deGroat (Illustrator)

Molly is the youngest of four children, and she likes being the family baby. She's always been in the same class as her two best friends. Then she enters fifth grade and things change. Her siblings and parents are too busy for her, and she's not in the same class as her friends. Suddenly, Molly is on her own. She's got to figure out how to blossom as an individual.

95 pages, Paperback

First published August 21, 1992

About the author

Also know as Susan Shreve. Received the following awards: Jenny Moore Award, George Washington University, 1978; Notable Book citation, American Library Association (ALA), 1979, for Family Secrets: Five Very Important Stories; Best Book for Young Adults citation, ALA, 1980, for The Masquerade; Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies, National Council for Social Studies and the Children's Book Council joint committee, 1980, for Family Secrets: Five Very Important Stories; Guggenheim award in fiction, 1980; National Endowment for the Arts fiction award, 1982; Edgar Allan Poe Award, Mystery Writers of America, 1988, for Lucy Forever and Miss Rosetree, Shrinks; Woodrow Wilson fellowships, West Virginia Wesleyan, 1994, and Bates College, 1997; Lila Wallace Readers Digest Foundation grant.

Reviews

[Katt Hansen]

Being the youngest can be a cozy comfortable place when you're small. But as you get older everything changes. You change. I remember that feeling.

Molly has been the pet of the family since she was born. But the year she's ten, she feels less noticed. Less important. Her older siblings are getting wrapped up in their own lives, her best friends are moving on without her, and all she can think is to chase after everyone with a plaintive "Wait for me!"

Molly's plight is something a lot of kids can sympathize with. My complaint though, is that she feels whiny. Rather than be waited on and coddled, I kind of wish she'd pull herself together. Thankfully she does as time goes by though she obsesses with teenage-level angst. Sadly I just couldn't like her as much as I wanted to, and when the book came to the foregone conclusion I was glad to put it down.

I DID like the way she worked out with the high school track team. I wish we'd spent a little more time on that aspect and on the friendships she was developing (in short the positive aspects of the book) rather than going over and over the same well-worn ground of feeling lonely and left out.

[Cheryl]

Strange book. The premise is fine... for a child up to about age 9... but not for a fifth-grader. The book is illustrated, quite short & direct... fit for second or third grades. The most interesting bits, for example Molly's 'adoption' by the high school track team, and her new friend Sally, are given short shrift. The odd complex bit baffles me... why does Molly lie so much? She keeps saying "oh, I don't care, I don't think I'll sign up, I'm not interested...." Why?

Recommended to the baby of the family who is an independent reader of age 7-9. Or older if they still feel adrift, if they still haven't found their own separate identity.