A spirited eleven-year-old girl records the upheavals of early adolescence in a diary that is by turns comic, prickly, and tender. As she enters high school, she treasures her pact of complete confidence with her friend Hella, clashes with her bossy older sister Dora, and begins to measure herself against family, classmates, and the rules of a world she only partly understands. Summer holidays bring birthday cakes, mountain walks, chocolate creams, teasing games, letters, and the thrill of being noticed by Robert, whose teasing secrecy awakens her curiosity about boys, status, and hidden codes. As the entries continue, everyday annoyances—rainy boredom, sibling quarrels, titles, proper forms of address, and small social triumphs—take on outsized meaning. The narrator's vanity and sensitivity sharpen as she watches Oswald's ambitions, school marks, cigarettes, and growing sophistication, while a scandal at the tennis court exposes the family's strictness and her resentment at being punished for others' behavior. Later, a lost bundle of pages sends her into panic over privacy, even as family life shifts with visits, departures, exams, and the unexpected restoration of noble rank. Through it all, the diary offers a vivid, intimate portrait of a child becoming self-aware, proud, and hungry for recognition. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.
