When I was a young teen (early 1970s) my mother gave me the strangest YA novel to read. I’m wondering if anyone recognizes it?
It was about a young girl, around age 15, who I think lived on a horse ranch and perhaps her mother was gone via death or divorce. She was pregnant and hid it (or denied it, I’m not sure) as long as she could - there is one scene where her father comments that she is gaining weight, not recognizing that she is pregnant.
The girl decides to run away on foot, I think to join her boyfriend. At one point she is hungry and tired, and follows advice her father had given, to eat a “dream sandwich” (probably not quite that term). She has no food but imagines eating something delicious, bite by bite. That scene stayed with me as I thought it was a very stupid way to deal with hunger; it would just intensify your desire for food.
My recollection is that the book ends not with a bang but a whimper. She gets to her destination, or something, and the book just kind of ends. It seemed kind of pointless.
Does anyone recognize that book? I’d be interested in reading it again, to see if my insight/perspective is greater after all these years. I’m also curious what my mother’s agenda was in giving me the book (knowing her, I’m sure she had one). Whatever it was, it went right over my head at the time.
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