Book Crush Contest, Winning Entry

Paula Kalafarski
Pawtucket, Rhode Island

My First Book Crush:

When I was perhaps eleven, I was poking through paperbacks at a used bookstore one day when I spotted a slender novel with a cover image of a young girl, chatting happily on the phone. The title bore just a single word, "Fifteen". From the yellowed pages and the girl's clothing I could tell this book was written before I was born; it was not current, and subsequently not "cool". I bought it, even so, and began to read. Written by the wonderful Beverly Cleary, it told of Jane Purdy, and the joys and heartaches of first love. Knowing the book was almost twenty years old, imagine my surprise to discover this fictional character's feelings, insecurities and disappointments were exactly like mine. Although I devoured the adventures of Jo March, Laura Ingalls and Nancy Drew, I related to Jane in a way unlike any other character, before or since. Her parents were like my parents, her best friend Julie a twin of my favorite pal Debbie. I delighted when this shy, plain teenager met handsome Stan, and despaired when forces converged to separate them. I read it over and over. Some time later I happened across an updated edition, now sporting a more modern cover, and snapped it up as backup to my original. But when I want to relive this rather brief, some may say unremarkable piece of fiction now, as I do every few years, it's for my beat up, pages-falling-out, dog-eared copy that I reach. No longer merely a story to me, this is my favorite book, the very physical item itself. Opening the cover immediately transports me back to that moment when I first stood next to Jane, cheering her joys and drying her tears. Years later I came to understand that this charming, innocent book was at the same time also gently guiding me through my own awkward, uncertain teenage years, reassuring me that everything was going to be all right. In your whole lifetime, could you ever hope to reap a richer reward from the written word?