Behave Yourself Bethany Brant

Grade 4-6 "A preacher's daughter doesn't get all her goodness just by catching it from her parents," so Bethany Brant has to work at being good. Her conflict with the P.K. image and her natural inclinations add amusing episodes to character and plot development. The lapses in her goodness have a way of backfiring. For example, after Bethany deliberately chooses the ugliest fabric for her cousin's birthday dress, she finds that her cousin has done the same thing for her. Like Beatty's heroines in Eight Mules from Monterey (1982), By Crumbs, It's Mine (1976; o.p.), How Many Miles to Sundown (1974; o.p.; all Morrow), and others, Bethany is feisty, capable, and full of colorful expletives. Beatty depicts the southwest at the turn of the century with her usual attention to detail and accuracy. Ruth Fitzgerald, Berrien County Intermediate Sch . Dist . , Mich.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Well regarded for her lively stories about the American West, Beatty has written another rouser, this time set in turn-of-the-century Texas. Its heroine, Bethany Brant, is a preacher's daughter, hard-pressed to be good, especially when her mother dies and she and her brother are sent to live with relatives. The period details are worked handily into the plot (the arrival of a circus is one high point), and Bethany's frank, colloquial voice sets a humorous tone. Though Bethany's rivalry with her cousin Mattywill is awkwardly resolved, and a suspected villain proves less dastardly than the reader is led to expect, this is an entertaining account of frontier lifeno less so for showing some of the hardships. An author's note provides background, elaborating on the role of women and other historical elements.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.