The Secret Window, by Betty Ren Wright
The Secret Window, Apple Paperbacks front cover
The Secret Window, Apple Paperbacks back cover
The following passage from Betty Ren Wright’s The Secret Window is a bit of a spoiler, but it is hands-down one of the best things I’ve experienced in the last couple of months—I mean low bar, sure, but still—and as the book originally came out in 1982, I think you’ll survive:
Meg didn’t recognize anyone. Most of the boys were tall—much taller than the boys in Linda’s eighth-grade class.
“What’s that smell?” she whispered, trying to keep her voice steady. “It’s grass, isn’t it? Somebody’s smoking grass! Oh, Gracie!”
But Gracie was halfway across the room, calling to Linda.
The Secret Window hardcover, probably??
Like so, so many chapter books from this era—or at least a lot of the ones I’ve read—it features:
Marital discord! Meg’s mother is stuck paying all the bills while Meg’s father spends all his time at the library working on his poetry, and Meg’s mother is OVER IT, which leads to…
Completely unfair sibling treatment! In this case, Meg’s mother ADORES Meg’s older brother (who looks just like her while Meg looks more like her father), so he can do no wrong, while Meg literally gets in trouble for falling asleep after school: “Obviously it’s five fifteen or I wouldn’t be home,” her mother snapped. “And I see no reason why a twelve-year-old girl needs a nap after school. When I was your age I was taking care of five little brothers and sisters while my mother worked. I certainly didn’t have time to—”
Friendships ending! Meg’s best friend Gracie has started hanging out with EIGHTH GRADERS! Eighth graders who have UNCHAPERONED BOY-GIRL PARTIES and, as I already spoiled, SMOKE WEED!!
As if all that weren’t enough for one twelve-year-old to handle, poor old Meg ALSO has PROPHETIC DREAMS!
She can’t talk to anyone about them, though, because she tried when she was younger, and her father’s reaction showed her that she needed to keep it a secret:
But, of course, she couldn’t forget it. Her father had said crazy, and that was the word that stayed in her mind. It was crazy to have dreams that came true. If you talked about them it’d upset the people you loved and make them angry. She had learned something bad about herself, an ugly secret. That night she had been afraid to go to sleep.
Which, honestly, is an example of why I keep coming back to these old books—despite how dated they are, and despite how truly absurd they can be, they do hit on some truths about relationships between parents and children. She confided in her father… and his crappy reaction resulted in her keeping a scary, painful secret for YEARS. So, you know. Parallels to Other Situations can be drawn quite easily.
The Secret Window ebook
There’s another one of those moments in this scene, in which Meg is talking to her new friend Rhoda, who is an only child:
“Maybe your folks didn’t want any more children,” Meg said. She was thinking of something she’d heard her mother say to a friend long ago. Of course it’s very nice to have a boy and a girl, but the second child in our family was strictly an accident.
I mean, seriously. What kid is going to overhear that and NOT internalize it? Yikes.
Anyway, prophetic dreams, death of a friendship, death of a marriage, coming to terms with a superpower, new friendship, coming into one’s own, etc., etc., etc.
Is it great? No. But it has its moments! Genuinely good ones, like the parent/child stuff, and wonderfully goofy stuff, like Gracie’s tantrum after the aforementioned UNCHAPERONED BOY-GIRL PARTY gets BUSTED:
Meg put out a hand, but Gracie snatched her arm away. “So now you know.” She was still sobbing. “I hate you, and Linda hates you, and every single person at that party hates you. Everybody hates a fink! Linda’s folks probably hate you, too, because one of the boys was drunk and tried to get away from the police, and he broke a beautiful vase in the living room.” She rubbed her eyes. “You’re so mean!”
That last “YOU’RE SO MEAN!” kills me, it’s so unfair and so real and so hilarious.
I shall leave you with another gem, this one from the fabulous Rhoda:
“I’m going to be a late bloomer,” Rhoda said, popping up over the seat in front of them. Chris ducked her head in embarrassment. “If I don’t grow up to win the Nobel Prize in chemistry, I expect to be a sex symbol. Either way, you can say you knew me when.”
Oh, and bonus! Remember how these books always had a list of OTHER books to read? Here it is:
Other APPLE PAPERBACKS(R) you will enjoy:
Bummer Summer, by Ann M. Martin
The Door in the Wall, by Marguerite de Angeli
The Girl with the Silver Eyes, by Willo Davis Roberts
Kept in the Dark, by Nina Bawden
Mystery at Fire Island, by Hope Campbell
Yours Till Niagara Falls, Abby, by Jane O’Connor
Am I likely to use this as a reading list? You know it.