A 1979 young adult novel by Paula Danziger.
Fourteen-year-old Lauren Allen can't wait to start her elective course, "Law for Children and Young People". In her last year of junior high school, she is frustrated with both her home life and her social life. Her father is ornery and sexist and acts in a controlling way toward the whole family; her older sister Melissa, a 19-year-old college student, gets her own room and significant freedom while Lauren has to share a room with her messy younger sister Linda, an aspiring comedian who keeps telling bad jokes. Her first boyfriend, Bobby Taylor, who is two years older than her, broke up with her for not wanting to "go far enough" and is dating Sandy Linwood, a cheerleader. In short, there is a lot in Lauren's life about which to be angsty.
One thing that Lauren hopes the elective course will prepare her for is to put her on track toward becoming a lawyer who will fight for social justice and defend the rights of young people. For herself, she hopes in particular to find out whether she can "sue her parents for malpractice". The class duly starts, taught by Mr. Matthews, a very fair and understanding teacher who believes in young people having rights and who is studying law at night school. One of the first things he does is to give an assignment that may be done in pairs or small groups. Zack Davids, a boy in eighth grade who is clearly interested in Lauren, asks her to do the project together. Lauren accepts, albeit after some hesitation. Lauren and Zack do quickly start developing a relationship that is more than strictly that of classmates, which flies in the face of a convention at the school that older girls don't date younger boys.
As the school year progresses, certain things quickly come to a head. A class project criticizing the treatment of students by the school causes a scandal with some staff and parents being outraged. And at home, her sister Melissa will make a decision that will drive an even bigger wedge between Lauren's father and the rest of the family. Lauren even falls out with her friend Bonnie over her seeing Zack in defiance of their school's dating conventions. And Bobby comes back into her life and shows interest in reconnecting. It looks like her life situation is hopeless. In the end, Lauren will come out from it all having grown as a person.
This work provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Zack's father, who beat him and his brother. This is why Zack's mother divorced him and moved Zack from California to New Jersey. For that matter, Lauren's father would qualify as being emotionally abusive.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Linda, who is trying to become a comedian and insists on practicing by constantly telling bad jokes to her family.
- Bittersweet Ending: By the end of the book, Lauren's father has not grown as a person and her sister Melissa remains unwelcome by him at home. On the other hand, her mother seems to be more willing to stand up to her father, and Lauren has learned a valuable lesson about making her own decisions and not caring about what her schoolmates think about them. She has made up with Bonnie, and also has a respectful boyfriend on her intellectual level, and has ditched her self-absorbed former boyfriend for good.
- Cool Big Sis: Melissa turns out to be this to Lauren after she moves in with her boyfriend and gets ostracized by their father. The crisis in the family doesn't stop her from inviting Lauren over to her apartment behind their father's back, getting her ice cream, and talking through with her on an adult level the things that have been bothering her in her life.
- Cool Teacher: Mr. Matthews, who treats students respectfully and who specifically teaches the elective law course in order to educate junior high schoolers about their legal rights and encourage them to advocate for greater rights. When the students are treated unfairly by the school administration, Mr. Matthews goes as far as to assign them a task of preparing a newsletter containing anonymous articles in which they complain about this treatment, and distributing it throughout the school, knowing that it could put his job at risk, though he is not overly concerned about it as he has tenure. The assignment does cause a scandal where many members of the faculty and parents take it as encouraging subversive behavior among the students. Some even want him fired; Mr. Matthews' reaction is to be pleased because now everyone is more aware of the issue of children's rights.
- Dean Bitterman: Mr. O'Brien, the Vice-Principal. When faced with having to deal with disciplinary problems, he does not care about listening to the students' side of the story, only about meting out punishment and about school rules being obeyed to the letter.
- Full-Name Ultimatum: When Lauren asks her older sister Melissa how far she goes with her boyfriend Mike, Melissa replies: "Lauren Allen, that's really none of your business. Do I ever ask how far you go with any of the pimple-faced kids you hang out with?"
- Good Parents: Ms. Alda, Bonnie's mother, who very much falls into the "cool parent" category, at least from Lauren's perspective of outsider looking in (we don't see her everyday interaction with her daughter, so it's hard to be objective). Also, Zack's mother, who divorced Zack's abusive father. She is very open-minded and tolerant toward her son, though not above grounding him when he gets into a fight at school.
- Hypocrite: Lauren's father is a cheap bastard who won't even hand over Lauren's allowance without delivering a guilt-tripping speech about how hard it is to make money. But he becomes bitter when his wife decides to go back to work as a substitute teacher, and even when she gets on a game show, complaining that his wife making money will make it seem like he can't support his family.
- Joisey: When Zack introduces himself to the class, he says that all his friends are back in California and that he is taking the class because "I want to know if just because of a divorce, I've got to stay with my mother in New Jersey." Lauren's narration comments: "He says "New Jersey" as if it's the armpit of the nation."
- Maybe Ever After: By the end of the book, Lauren has definitively gotten over Bobby and is an item with Zack - at least for the time being (them being in junior high and all).
- My Way or the Highway:
- When Lauren's father sees that she has defied him by getting her ears pierced, he starts yelling at her. She yells back: "I paid for it out of my own money. I can do whatever I want with it. I have my rights." He yells back: "Don't you yell at me in my own house. I won't have it. When you start to pay rent here, you can do whatever you want. Until then, I'm still the boss." Lauren retorts: "That's it. I've had it. I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to sue you for malpractice, because you're such a lousy father." (Lauren's mother then takes her side and Lauren withdraws herself as the argument shifts to one between her parents).
- When someone from Lauren's homeroom cuts the wire on the class phone and steals the receiver, Mr. O'Brien comes from the office and screams at them that unless someone confesses, they will all have detention forever. Lauren tells him that that is not fair and that they have some rights. O'Brien replies: "You're students. While you're in this school, you must do what you are told." Bonnie then argues: "It's not right to punish the entire class for the work of one criminally minded fiend." (A search of everyone is then performed and the speaker is found in Ed Harmon's gym sneaker).
- Open-Minded Parent: Ms. Alda, Bonnie's mother, would seem to be this. She talks to both Bonnie and Lauren kindly and without adult condescension; she is also supportive of their decision to get their ears pierced to the point of gifting each girl a special pair of earrings as a token of emotional support. Even more so Zack's mother, who shares mutual awareness with Zack of the fact that, when he and Lauren go upstairs to study, they will probably also be making out, and even seems to be pleased by this, all the while having advised Zack not to take things too far.
- Parents as People: Lauren's father is despotic, sexist, cheap, and generally unpleasant. Lauren's mother is nice enough, but she finds it difficult to stand up to her husband, shifting between trying to please him and justifying his attitudes, and standing up for her daughters.
- Stay in the Kitchen: Lauren's mother is a housewife, and her father likes things that way. He is resentful when she decides to go back to work as a substitute teacher.
- Title Drop: "Can you sue your parents for malpractice? I'm sure going to find out when the new course starts on Monday."
- Took a Level in Badass: Seeing her daughters' defiance toward parental authority (namely, Lauren giving Linda her training bra earlier than their mother said she could wear one, and then Lauren getting her ears pierced in direct defiance of her father) prompts the mother to defy her husband as well, going back to work as a substitute teacher, spending money on some new clothes, and having her own ears pierced.
- When I Was Your Age...: Early in the novel, Lauren asks her older sister Melissa "how far she goes" when she goes out with her boyfriend, Mike. Melissa calls her out for asking such a nosy question, adding: "When I was your age, I never asked anyone how far they went. So you're just going to have to keep wondering. I have the right to my own life."
- You Can't Go Home Again: When Lauren's nineteen-year-old sister Melissa decides to leave home and move in with her college-age boyfriend, their father ostracizes her, decreeing she must never come home unless perhaps she and her boyfriend get married. He openly claims to Lauren that he is doing this in order that she not set a bad example for Lauren and Linda. Lauren is only enraged by this and considers her father's actions retrograde.
