A review by willowsfair
Cress Delahanty by Jessamyn West

4.0

Surprisingly current in many ways, Cress Delahanty is a coming of age novel about a young girl with an unusual spirit. Poetic, funny, intrepid, with a bottomless integrity and curiosity, Cress at times seems wiser than her years and then by turns incredibly childlike and innocent. This book must have been considered a bit scandalous when it first appeared, because even now some of the things Cress says and does do cause a bit of a raised eyebrow. But over and over she glides through life's obstacles and oddities with a clear-eyed vision and grasp of reality. Sometimes her dreams and ideas can be quite imaginative, which only makes it all the more fun. The adults in this book, too, surprise and delight. I am pretty sure they are all imaginary, which adds to the reader's delight in the mind of the author.