Really, the book should be a book and it's sequel because 2 parts of it are very different. I probably would give this book 3 stars but in this case, the fact that it was written by Betty Cavanna, whose books I usually love, caused me to give it 4 stars. Two of her books have been runners-up for the Edgar Allan Poe Award: Spice Island Mystery in 1970 and the Ghost of Ballyhooly in 1972. In the 1970s Cavanna turned to writing mysteries, which she termed 'escape fiction,' because she said she felt out of sync with the problems of modern teenagers. Going on Sixteen and Secret Passage were Spring Book Festival honor books in 19.

Her books, although characterized as pleasant, conventional, and stereotyped, have been extremely popular and recommended by critics for their attention to subjects which have reflected girls' interests. Her characters confronted loneliness, sibling rivalries, divorce, and tense mother-daughter relationships. As Betty Cavanna she also published the nonfiction 'Around the World Today' about young people living in various countries.Ĭavanna's juvenile fiction, about the difficulties of adolescenc, appealed to generations of teenage girls. Since then she has written more than seventy books under the name of Betty Cavanna as well as two pseudonyms: Betsy Allen, under which she wrote the ' Connie Blair Mystery' series, and Elizabeth Headley, under which she wrote several books, including the Diane stories. He died in 1979.Ĭavanna became a full-time writer in 1941. After her husband's death, she married George Russell Harrison, a university dean of science, as well as nonfiction writer, in 1957. In 1940 she married Edward Talman Headley, with whom she had a son. She also wrote and sold material to Methodist and Baptist publishing firms. In 1931 she joined the staff of the Westminster Press in Philadelphia and over the next ten years served as advertising manager and art director. Cavanna's first job was as a reporter for the Bayonne Times. She also took art classes in New York and Philadelphia. During her convalescence, attentive adults read to her until she was old enough to read to herself, beginning a long love affair with books.Ĭavanna majored in journalism at the New Jersey College for Women in New Brunswick, from where she received the Bachelor of Letters degree in 1929. American juvenile author (full name: Elizabeth Allen) Betty Cavanna suffered from a crippling disease, infantile paralysis, as a child, which she eventually overcame with treatment and exercise.

A Biblical Feast by Kitty Morse