The Cheerleader [Paperback]

Ruth Doan MacDougall (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1998

Here is what it was like to grow up in the 1950s in the years of ponytails, pajama parties, proms, and "parking", when to be popular was important and when, if you were a girl, being important meant being a cheerleader. THE CHEERLEADER is a best-selling novel about the loss of innocence, the growth of passion, and the awakening of ambition."A classic."--PUBLISHERS WEEKLY"One of the truest portraits of an American girl ever written."--DETROIT FREE PRESS"It's heartbreaking at times, hilarious at others, and she's got it all down beautifully."--PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER"If future historians and sociologists are ever impelled to find out what it was like to be a high school student in America at mid 20th century, they will need go no farther than THE CHEERLEADER for documentation and enlightenment...Utterly honest, accurate, and sympathetic."--KANSAS CITY STAR"A devastatingly accurate portrait of the '50s."--LIBRARY JOURNAL

Editorial Reviews

Review

"One of the truest portraits of an American girl ever written...Everything works in MacDougall's book. She captures the times, the attitudes, the emotions with the authority of one who was once there and knows the route back by heart."--Detroit Free Press

"It's heartbreaking at times, hilarious at others, and she's got it all down beautifully."--Philadelphia Inquirer

"In earlier novels Ruth Doan MacDougall has shown that if you bring an uncommon mind and talent to the commonplace what you are likely to get is not the commonplace but the uncommon. Now she has used that mind and talent to deal with one of the major communal democratic experiences shared by Americans--going to high school...I can't recall a novel in which high-school-age youngsters appear which seems to reproduce so naturally their way of talking and in fact their whole demeanor and style of living. Nor have I recently encountered a more appealing young heroine than Snowy...If future historians and sociologists are ever impelled to find out what it was like to be a high school student in America at mid 20th century, they will need go no farther than The Cheerleader for documentation and enlightenment...Utterly honest, accurate and sympathetic."--Kansas City Star

"The author has captured firsthand the standards and traditions of the Fifties...You will be terrifically entertained."--Chattanooga Times

"A quite remarkable novel...Pinpoints so accurately the personal trauma of teenage girls growing up."--Camden, N.J., Courier-Post

"The first love affair is neatly and sensitively handled, the dialogue absolutely right, the adolescents are as they have always been."--Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Great nostalgic touches."--Chicago Tribune

"No one who was there could fault her--MacDougall holds a mirror up to the Fifties and comes away with a true reflection."--Fort Worth Star-Telegram

"A devastatingly accurate portrait of the '50s."--Library Journal

"It isn't often that you get to the last page of a book and are aware that you have just finished a real reading experience. But that's how you'll feel when you finish The Cheerleader. A terrific book. Really terrific."--United Press International

"Read it if you can bear to remember it."--Alix Kates Shulman, author of Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen

"Painfully authentic...Ruth Doan MacDougall's The Cheerleader captures as well as any book I've read the feeling of being in high school."--Ralph Keyes, author of Is There Life after High School? -- Across the nation the critics cheer The Cheerleader

From the Author

Once I received a desperate phone call from a woman whose beloved copy of The Cheerleader had been sold by mistake in a yard sale.

I've received letters from The Cheerleader fans wailing that their copies were borrowed by friends and never returned. I've received pathetic descriptions of copies that disintegrated after years of being read over and over. Everybody has asked: When will The Cheerleader be in print again?

The mail that has continued to stream in ever since The Cheerleader was first published includes many amazing tales. My favorite: Jennifer, now in her thirties, recalled how in her girlhood she managed with great determination to find her mother's copy of The Cheerleader hidden under the mattress of a king-size bed, "way in the middle!" Recently Jennifer packed The Cheerleader in her suitcase ready for the trip to the hospital to have her own child; "Mom is hoping to be there for the birth, so I think it will be quite hilarious to come full circle--reading aloud the book she banned as I'm giving birth to her grandchild!" As soon as Jennifer came home with her baby daughter, she took part in a "group read" of The Cheerleader on the Internet.

All these devoted fans and all those who have asked for the chance to read The Cheerleader for the first time have now got their wish. The Cheerleader is back in print!

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Frigate Books (June 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0966335201
• ISBN-13: 978-0966335200
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #479,356 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A uniquely wonderful book, June 8, 2000

By 

Paula K. Martin (Illinois) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Cheerleader (Paperback)

I first read The Cheerleader in high school in the 70's and recently re-read both it and the sequel, Snowy, which I was able to find at my local library. (Note: if you loved The Cheerleader, run- don't walk- to find a copy of Snowy because it was the best sequel anyone could have hoped for. It was a wonderful and poignant continuance of the story of the characters we grew to know and love in The Cheerleader.) I think Ruth Doan MacDougall's writing style is heart-warming and absolutely true to real human nature and emotion. I feel like I personally know her characters and see so much of myself at times in Snowy. Her writing just grabbed ahold of me and roped me in- my favorite time of the day would be when I could join Snowy and the gang in Gunthwaite, and then as Snowy grew older in the sequel, I ached for her in times of difficulty and sadness and rejoiced for her in times of success and happiness. I give this author my highest praise and want to say that The Cheerleader and Snowy have touched my heart in a way very few books have ever done.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Devastatingly readable, January 4, 2005

By 

Abby (Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Cheerleader (Paperback)

The Cheerleader offers a painful, deeply realistic view of growing up in the 1950s, one that is at once compelling and alarming in its portrayal of teenage life. Snowy and her friend Puddles, eager for high school acceptance and the typical teenage experience, try out for the cheerleading team and make their way through the complicated maze of relationships along with their friend Bev.

What follows is a full description of dating, the most important aspect of high school, from the desire to go out with the "popular" boys to the pressure to go farther to please the boys. MacDougall is at once sympathetic and critical of Snowy's case, portraying her as the typical girl but taking an objective look at her at times. I often felt swept along with Snowy's perspective, but every now and then MacDougall pulled me out of the flow to subtly question the 1950s teen experience and I realized how devastating the "typical" experience really must have been for girls.

Though the book is set in the 1950s, much of its substance is still relevant today. As a girl between teenhood and adulthood, I felt that MacDougall was simultaneously writing a retrospective book and questioning my own upbringing, and I could see many parallels between Snowy's experience and my own high school years. As a purely entertaining book, The Cheerleader delivers a full look at the 1950s, but its true value lies in the depth of its devastating portrayal of the high school female experience.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars High School Nostalgia, April 12, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Cheerleader (Paperback)

I borrowed this book from my older sister when I was in Junior high. She had gotten it from the senior high school library. After I read it, I couldn't wait to get to Senior High school so I could read it again. There is something about this book that invites the reader to suffer the pangs of adolescence along with Snowy, the main character. You are excited when she is asked out by the boy of her dreams. Now, about 20 years later, I was happy to find this book at Amazon.com. For some reason it has been on my mind again. Highly recommend.