Linda's Homecoming

It centers around Linda Hollis whose whole life is uprooted and transplanted by her mother's second marriage. Saying good-bye to New York at the beginning of her senior year in high school is difficult for Linda, and she does not look forward to meeting her ready-made step-family. There is Babs, a glamorous girl Linda's age, but sullen and resentful of any intrusion. Babs's younger brother, Roddy, makes trouble from the start by breaking into Linda's prized photographic equipment. And Martin Stevens, Linda's stepfather, seems too absorbed in his Museum to untangle the family's troubles. Even the Stevens's cat picks a fight with Linda's pooch, Roughy. However, under the tactful guidance of Linda's mother the two families are really united and Linda begins to put down new roots and feel at home in Midwestern Cedarhill in spite of herself. She joins the Shutter-Snappers, helps with a Museum project, and wins many friends--Gordon, a talented New York pianist, and Peter, who lives across the street, even Babs! Linda's romance is climaxed at an old fashioned box supper.

I have purchased this book 3+ times (and keep losing my copy to friends). It's an excellent story about coming to terms with losses in life, and accepting people and situations as they are vs. as one wants them to be. Ms. Whitney moved me as a young adult, and this book continues to touch me whenever I re-read it.