Jean Jarrett is fifteen years old. She is small for her age, wears glasses and shares her friend Elaine's admiration for Kip Laddish, television's gift to girls. But when a goodlooking boy steps up to Jean one evening at a high-school party, which she is watching from the sidelines, and asks her to dance, he puts Kip right out of her mind. Unfortunately, Jean's feet get mixed up with her partner's and leave white marks on his polished black shoes, because she doesn't know how to dance. She doesn't even know who the boy is, but the resourceful Elaine soon finds out. His name is Johnny Chessler. Elaine persuades Jean to take off her glasses in the school corridors to improve her looks, with the result that when Jean finally meets Johnny again he is only a blur.

The story of Jean and Johnny -- Jean's wavering self-confidence and Johnny's cast-iron composure -- is both funny and touching, in the very special way that Beverly Cleary, to the delight of thousands of readers, has made her own.