Pastures of the Blue Crane pretends to be a serious book, while really being a romantic one. This is a pity, because if Mrs. Brinsmead had been less ambitious, it would have been a good romantic novel, about slightly older teenagers, which is just what the younger ones like best…. It is quite a good story, with some likeable characters, but Mrs. Brinsmead's introduction of the race problem overwhelms it, and the discovery that the heroine is the half-caste boy's sister is too easy a solution of a difficult problem.