Fourteen and Holding

In the fourth book of the series, 14-year-old Kobie finds herself facing freshman year without her best friend. The year before, Gretchen had been in a serious car accident, which caused her to fall behind in her schoolwork and require repeating eighth grade. Naturally, she's horrified at the prospect, but determined to try making the best of her new school. But just about everything that could go wrong, does. Like some sort of weird Murphy's Law, Kobie attracts the wrath of Jeanette, a tough older girl, and Sandy, a kindhearted follower...both of whom, in their own ways, keep getting Kobie into trouble. When Jeanette threatens to kill Kobie, she decides to take matters into her own hands... This book is laugh-out-loud funny, one of Ransom's finest.

It is a travesty that the "Kobie" books are out of print! I adored reading about Kobie, and strongly feel that the few books that featured her were among the most underrated of the young adult genre in the 80s. Like one of the other reviewers here, I am also nearly 25. Though Kobie was a little older than me (I was maybe in 5th grade when I first read about her high school adventures) she spoke of universal awkwardness. Kobie was funny and genuine, and there was nothing condescending about her. It was smart, sensitive reading. She felt like an old friend. If I have a daughter someday, hopefully I'll be able to get my hands on the Kobie books for her, as my copies fell apart a while ago. So what if she won't understand the references to Van Halen and the "cool" 80s styles? She'll have hours of good literary company.

I LOVED the Kobie Roberts books (Almost Ten and a Half, Going on Twelve, Thirteen, Fourten and Holding, Fifteen at Last)....Kobie was so cool in that she wasn't perfect...She was funny.. I wish there had been a "Sweet Sixteen" book in the 'series' as well...I'm almost 25 now, but I plan on keeping my Kobie books...

This is an excellent book and I was very sad when I heard that it was not being published any more. This is a story about a girl who has to go to a diffrent school than her best friend Gretchen. Gretchen got into an accident last year and had to repeat a grade. That means that the girl has to go to the high school all alone. Then there is a girl named Sandy who is always following her a round. The girl wants to ditch her so she can be in the popular group, but she feels that she can't because Sandy has scoliosis. Then in home economics another girl named Jennet begins to bother, threaten and harras the girls. What will happen?