Just as Long as We're Together

The Blume books keep on coming like chocolate bars, offering a comforting lack of variation and the apparent quenching of a kind of hunger. It's all to do with easing anxiety, naming the problems of schoolgirl adolescent life and weaving them into the comfort of everyday existence. Which is why we have so many facts of shopping trips and names of teachers, clothes, boys and rooms. The debate about different kinds of stuffing exists with the onset of menstruation and is handled in much the same way. The story? Well, parents separating, breaking and making friends, going out with boys. The title says it all and it will be popular but oh for the antidote - a strong dose of singleness.