I'll admit I bought Reeney because I like Charles Geer's illustrations. Reeney Johnson is a high school sophomore whose mother has just died. The book opens with the family coming home after Mrs. Johnson's funeral. Aside from her father and her older brother, Matt, there are also Uncle Eddie and Aunt Ada. This is a story aimed at teen girls, so we aren't told much about them, not even if they're married to each other or to which parent one or both is a sibling.
The main thing to know is that Aunt Ada is willing to come keep house for the Johnsons and Uncle Eddie is fine with that. Aunt Ada is so bossy that Reeney and Matt are horrified at the thought of living under the same roof with her.

This is 1963, so it's up to Reeney to volunteer to cook and keep house for her family. She's going to do this even though she's got school and a steady boyfriend. What's Matt going to do? Polish his car.

Reeney makes plenty of mistakes in the kitchen and the housekeeping. Matt seems to delight in not cleaning up after himself. Something has to go from Reeney's busy life. It's the orchestra she drops for more time with Steve.

Good thing there's next-door neighbor Mrs. Turner to teach Reeney the finer points of housekeeping and making a good pie (skills the target audience would have been expected to learn).

Reeney has been so focused on keeping house well enough to fend off Aunt Ada, keep her grades up, and giving Steve the admiration he craves that she fails to notice Matt is falling apart. The crisis comes during a weekend when their father has to be out of town on business. Can Reeney get her priorities straight?

There's nothing about drugs or Civil Rights in this book, but I am pleased that Reeney kept up with her grades and figured Steve out. I was still in elementary school when this book came out, but I remember housework and cooking without today's labor-saving devices. If you like glimpses into the past, you might enjoy this novel. ( )