Why Not Join the Giraffes?

1968, 1969 Dell edition
Hope Campbell
Why Not Join the Giraffes?
Original price 60 cents, purchase price unknown
Worn paperback
B-

It's hard to articulate why I like this book.  Maybe it's the title, almost Zindelesque in its quirkiness, contrasting with its surprisingly wholesome content.  Yes, there's a mention of drugs, and yes, Ralph the love interest shows up with a hangover, but mostly these are good kids, if not exactly cleancut.  Protagonist Suzie isn't particularly sympathetic at first, with her discontent in her free-spirited but kind family, not to mention that she lies to Ralph and his family.  But she does learn her various lessons in a not too heavy-handed way.  And other characters, her parents included, learn, too.  I remember getting this book from the library a couple times, and the part I most liked was how Suzie gets her story about the local Chinese restaurant printed, improving business for family friend Willy Chen.  I think I didn't get this copy of the book till I was an adult but I remembered the title of course.

Willy is an interesting minor character, partly because he does speak in fractured English but he's not fully a stereotype.  Similarly, Suzie's best friend Natalie Goldman, whose last name she "borrows," is Jewish but it's not an issue.  Campbell does a decent job of showing the diversity of New York, ethnic and otherwise.

The book is of course incredibly dated, from the pop-art cover of this "flipped-out, tuned-in comedy" to the fashion details.  (Who knew turtlenecks were so edgy?)  I was also struck by how freely Suzie travels through New York, sometimes on her own.  This is after all four years after the Kitty Genovese murder, yet no one seems worried about Suzie's safety.  It'll be interesting to compare her to Annabel Andrews in Mary Rodgers's books from a few years later.