Introducing Parri

Parri MacDonald #1

by Janet Lambert

Fourteen year old Parri MacDonald, daughter of Penny Parrish and Josh MacDonald, attends private school and is quite lonely. After going to New York and charging an expensive coat to her mother's account, and auditioning for a Broadway show, Parri's parents realize that they haven't been very attentive to their daughter. While Parri is struggling with her problems, her cousin, Davy Parrish, son of Carrol and David Parrish and a victim of polio in his childhood, has difficulty passing the West Point physical.

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction

190 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1962

About the author

Janet Lambert, born in Crawfordsville, Indiana, was a popular girls' story author from 1941 through 1969 (and beyond to today). She wrote 54 books during that time about a number of different girls and their families. Her most popular series were about the Parrishes and the Jordons. These stories, and many of her other series, became entwined as the various characters met each other, married, and then had children of their own!

Janet, having an interest in both the theater and writing, decided to write her own plays in which to act. She did achieve her goal and appeared on Broadway. When she married a career Army officer, her life on stage came to a close, but her stories were still flowing. Knowing well the "life of the Army," many of Ms. Lambert's books are set on Army posts throughout the United States.

Legend has it that her stories started as bedtime stories for her children while they were overseas. Each night, the author would tell the next "installment" of the series. Later, after her kids were grown, she penned one of her stories (Star Spangled Summer) and—according to legend—it was sold to a publisher the very day after she sent it to them.

Reviews

[Katt Hansen · Rating 5 out of 5]

How is it I've never discovered Janet Lambert books until now?

I love the MacDonald family, and all their extended family. I love the adventures that Parri has in growing in, in trying to discover who she is and the mistakes she makes. But what I love more than anything is the close relationships that Parri has with her family and how they all go to such lengths for each other.

There's a hint of romance, a hint of heroism, a hint of a lot of things in this book. Sure, the book is dated, and you really need to read it with the timeframe in mind (very early 1960s) but that's part of what makes it so delightful. I want very much to find the other books that Janet wrote - all of them - simply because this was such a delight. But also because I really do want to know what happens to Parri next now that she's in high school.

[Meg W · Rating 4 out of 5]

Parrish Carrol MacDonald has the burden of having famous parents and a life very unlike the care free childhood of her famous mother Penny Parrish. After one day of misadventures her parents realize she is growing up and needs better companions then her 10 year old kid brother and her 16 and 18 year old boy cousins. If I had read this book by itself I would have given it a 3 1/2 or 4 stars but the way Mrs. Lambert intertwined all of her characters and past books is artful. It is always very enjoyable to "visit" my old friends the Parrish, MacDonald, and Jordan families.

[Karen Plummer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Penny Parrish MacDonald's daughter Parri takes center stage in this one, repeating her mother's lost day in New York where the 14 year old buys a flashy and expensive red coat, meets a young model/actress at a diner, and ends up auditioning for a part in a Broadway play. The whole incident gets her into great amounts of trouble but also leads to a realization that Parri doesn't have a lot of friends her own age. She's lived a rather isolated existence amongst her loving family and her family puts their collective heads together to find a solution. Dinner at her Uncle Bobby's house and a chance meeting with a young man leads Parri to finding her own place in the world.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even if I enjoy reading one Lambert book a little less than others, it still deserves 5 stars for the masterful way that she combines all of her characters, even if only abstractly, into each book. As in real life, if a family member doesn't appear in the story then at least the reader is told where they are and what they are doing. And the Parrish and Jordan families, bound together by several marriages, are clannish.

This book stars the next generation, Parrish McDonald, 14 year-old daughter of Penny Parrish and Josh McDonald. Parri, who goes to boarding school, is lonely without any friends and her family rushes to help out in those quarters. Meanwhile, her cousin Davey, son of Carrole and David Parrish and a childhood victim of polio, struggles to pass physical entrance exams into West Point.

[Carolynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Parri, the daughter of well-known actress (well-known to fans of Janet Lambert, anyway) Penny Parrish, rebels against her strict parents. In the process she discovers she has a knack for acting.