An Almost Perfect Summer (Lightning S.)

Fifteen-year-old Ellen Jane Gardner thought she was in for a perfect summer once she landed the job of mother's helper on Cape Cod. She knew the job description didn't specify sunny days at the beach, clam digging with two adorable children, and strolling in the moonlight with a handsome boy, but she fantasized that's what her summer would be like. Even before she's met the Winner family, she thinks her fantasy might come true when she meets gorgeous Toddy Crowley, who lives next door to her new employers.

Then Ellen meets Marcie, a ten-year-old spoiled brat who's disposed of eighteen mother's helpers already, and Derek, a five-year-old who doesn't yet talk. Things seem pretty grim when Lisa, the phantom sixteen-year-old sister whom no one bothered to mention in the job description, makes Ellen feel uncomfortable. Ellen knows her job isn't going to be easy but she's determined. It takes all of her imagination to match wits with Marcie and Derek and to figure out exactly what Todd Crowley wants. With more surprises in store, will Ellen be able to finish her summer job with a happy ending?

Ellen, 15, wants to be a writer. In order to make enough money for an electronic typewriter and, at the same time, escape another dreary summer in Pawtucket, she accepts a position as a mother's helper in Cape Cod. Her employers, appropriately named the Winners, are rich, high-powered lawyers who spend little time with their children, Derek, Marcie and Lisa. Ellen discovers that she is but one of a string of babysitters who have been driven away by Marcie's antics and other problems. Although the situation is far removed from the Wuthering Heights scenario she imagined, Ellen stays with the Winners, hoping to win a date with smooth-talking Todd, the boy next door. What follows is predictable: Ellen struggles to manage two difficult children, becomes rivals with beautiful Lisa, spends a disastrous evening with Todd, ends up with a more sincere boy and, finally, learns that life is different from her daydreams. There is nothing very memorable about the teenagers in this romance: Ellen seems too naive for her age and Lisa is one-dimensional. Derek and Marcie prove to be the most intriguing characters in the novel. Scenes revealing their history of neglect and desperate need for love are honest and poignant. Ages 12-up.
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