At 16, Beany, youngest of the Malones—a family well known to teen-age girls—was happy with the status quo. Then suddenly everything began to change [in "Beany Has a Secret Life"]…. For over 200 pages the author puts every possible obstacle in the way of a reconciliation between Beany and her stepmother, but finally our freckle-faced heroine sees the light.

The Malones are a nice family and, as always, fun to read about. One wishes, however, that the author had not thrown so many contrived misunderstandings their way and had not tied everything up quite so neatly at the end. (p. 24)