IT COULD HAPPEN TO ANYONE

From July to December, Jean Chelton passes through the many stages of' Going Steady from the magic moment when Andy Decker takes her home from the summer dance to the awareness of his sexual attraction and its serious consequences. In the atmosphere of parental anguish, her brother's disapproval and her own occasional desire to date other boys, Jean persists in ""going steady"". Andy's possessiveness, her own petty suspicions and a fast-disappearing interest in friends and schoolwork add more obstacles to the course of ""true love"". It takes the danger of almost ""going too far"" to teach Jean that ""it could happen to anyone"". Though a realization of this kind may help many girls like Jean, the more sensitive ones who have achieved substantial and less shallow relationships will not want to end them as abruptly as Jean did. Recommended for the average, not the exceptional, teenager.