Then Again, Maybe I Won't

Tony is 12 years old. He lives in Jersey with his mom, dad, grandmother, brother, and sister in law. Grandma cannot speak. But she cooks all meals. Tony's brother gets his wife pregnant. The family is worried about money. Tony's dad invents some electrical device. He sells it to some big wig, then gets hired to head up the plant that will manufacture them. They get rich due to this arrangement.

Tony and his immediate family move to Long Island. His brother and sister in law also move to New York. They now have a nice house. They hire a maid who takes over cooking, to grandma's dismay. There is a rich kid who lives next door. He is a thief. It causes Tony pain when the kid steals from stores. Lisa also lives next door. She is the big sister. Tony spies on her at night in her bedroom.

There is a tall skinny girl nicknamed Corky at school that has the hots for Tony. But he thinks he is in love with Lisa. Eventually the boy next door gets caught stealing by store security. They have him on tape. By then, Tony has had sessions with a shrink who helps him cope with troubling situations. Two years later, the thief kid is sent away to a military boarding school. And Tony think about warming up to Corky, seemingly giving up on his dreams about Lisa.

This book is by Judy Blume. It was published back in 1971. I must have read it before. I only recognized a scene when Tony and his pals hide a tip for a diner waitress in a milk jugs. The waitress screams at them that the tip pays for her loaf of bread. They stop sitting at her tables in the diner.