Beany Malone

I first read Lenora Mattingly Weber's Leave It To Beany (1950) as an adolescent growing up in the Midwest.  The title character of Beany Malone, whose fictional self had been my age over 50 years earlier, was to me the ideal all-American, self-sufficient, Midwestern girl.  She was attractive, but not showy, intelligent, but not too outspoken, well-liked, but introspective, neat and tidy, but creative.  To this day, I still think of her character and strive to replicate some of her qualities in my own life.