Mia and The Loneliness of Mia are less outstanding as works of literature [than some young adult novels], I would say, but then they are on a smaller scale. For young people of about thirteen and over, they deal in an outspoken way with sexual questions teenagers have to come to terms with. However, this is all within a context of relationships. Mia, her parents and her grandmother—and even another generation has to be taken into account while Mia is possibly pregnant—all these are linked by questions of love and responsibility, one generation to another. In the first book, especially, powerful emotions are handled with understanding and realism…. It seems to me that Beckman tries to deal with too many very serious problems at once and therefore the overall structure of her work suffers. Her clear-sightedness and honesty, however, compel attention. Here is a writer dealing with the world of today. (p. 39)

Bob Dixon, "Sexism: Birds in Gilded Cages," in his Catching Them Young 1: Sex, Race and Class in Children's Fiction (copyright © Pluto Press 1977), Pluto Press, 1977, pp. 1-41.∗