True to Form - Elizabeth Berg I listened to this book as an unabridged audio recording. The reader does a good job of portraying a frustrated young girl on the verge of womanhood but I often wished she'd speed up the reading a bit. She . . .. talks . . . casually . . . with . . . many . . . irritating . . . pauses.

The story, as it is, is an easy listen. Set in the 1950's (or early 60's?) Katie is a lonely thirteen year old living with her stern father and his new wife (who is isn't the evil witchy stereotype for a change) in a new town. Katie's own mother died and dad became so unbearable that Katie's older sister ran off. Katie's looking forward to spending her summer ogling sexy young lifeguard's at the beach but those dreams come to a crashing halt when her father insists she spend her summer assisting a bedridden neighbor and babysitting some neighborhood brats. Katie enters a "free vacation" contest, never expecting to win, but win she does and decides to visit her home town and her old friend CherylAnn for a few days. The trip turns out to be a bust as Katie realizes CherylAnn, always one of the cool kids, is very shallow and boring. The story continues as Katie grows up, makes mistakes and experiences all of the angst as only a thirteen year old can.

Katie makes some very wise observations about life and its changes and this glimpse into her life was a pleasure to read.