When Love Speaks by Amelia Elizabeth Walden, for the 1961 Club and Reading the Theatre Month

Walden (1909-2002) was a pioneering young adult author I read frequently as a teen and pre-teen, so in 2010 I was pleased to learn about the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents’ (“ALAN”) Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award.* With some exceptions, her books fell into three categories: girls playing sports, girls/young women involved in theater, or young women drawn into espionage. In the 1940s and 50s when her books were first published, there were very few people writing about girls in sports and there weren’t as many opportunities for girls to play. I was never a good athlete but it was still fun to read about these sporty girls who experienced challenges with teammates, coaches, school, families, and friends. In the 70s, she began writing about young women co-opted into espionage, and these must have been popular because several were published in paperback by Scholastic Book Services.