The Luckiest Girl by Beverly Cleary (Character Change)

In "The Luckiest Girl" by Beverly Cleary, a girl named Shelley goes out to California for a whole school year to go to a different school. There, she met a nice friend (Hartley) And the boy of her dreams (Philip) But when Shelley gets a D in Biology, and Philip following right behind her with a F, Shelley has to get her game on. And with Philip not allowed to date Shelley anymore, Shelley finds out that maybe Philip wasn't who she was looking for.

In this Bittersweet love story, Shelley changes a lot. At first, Shelley yelled at her parents because she wanted to be like everyone else and have a yellow slicker. But when Shelley finally wears the pink raincoat and matching hat that her mom got her, she found out that it was nice, and that she didn't really need to be like everyone else. She also found that the raincoat was very expensive, and she felt bad that she acted so childish. As for Katie (Shelley's cousin), she also had to learn this when she got an "ugly" sweater from her grandmother. Shelley realized that she wants to go to college. She wants to study botany. She wants to learn more about plants, and do crossword puzzles and learn about things that make her curious. And she has to admit her own mistakes and her own responsibility in order to make those goals possible. She really matured a lot.

This story gave a lesson. That you don't have to be like everyone else. That you have to be like yourself. And that sometimes, the "perfect" boy, isn't what he seems. But sadly, Shelley has to go home, and leave (The boy that she fell in love with at the end, NO SPOILERS!!) and so it was sort of sad. But she learned a lesson. And that is what mattered.