His mother becomes absorbed with advancing in the social hierarchy in the family's well-to-do community, while his maternal grandmother becomes angry and withdrawn when she is no longer allowed to cook for the household as she loves to do.

However, Tony also has to deal with the fact that she is three years older than he is, and, that if such a crush developed further, the age difference would be uncommon among boys he knows.

After doctors determine the malady is not physical (although he is diagnosed with "nervous stomach", which might now be translated to IBS), a therapist offers to help Tony.

Joel is eventually caught stealing golf balls from a sporting goods store, and Tony refuses to stand up for him when they are stopped by security.

Tony also overcomes his infatuation with Lisa and curtails watching her window after learning that she and his youth group leader are sweethearts.

Themes dealt with include the effects on Tony of losing the working-class life he had been used to in his Italian-American neighborhood in Jersey City, and being ill at ease in his new upper-class community.

In addition, Tony's grandmother has been marginalized, as she loved to cook for the family in Jersey City but is told that this would be inappropriate in their new home.

Mr. Hoober is vice president of a pharmaceutical company and is apparently extremely well compensated, which gives his wife the chance to spend her days playing golf and socializing.

The time frame of this story is evidently the late 1960s or early 1970s, as Tony's eldest brother, Vinnie, has been killed in action in the Vietnam War.

Kirkus Reviews complimented Blume's treatment of puberty, calling it "refreshingly light and undemanding," and praising how problems were realistically resolved in the storyline.

[2] The New York Times wrote that "[Blume's] understanding of young people is sympathetic and psychologically sound; her skill engages the reader in human drama without ever resorting to melodrama.