The tragedy of the fat girl is handled [in In a Mirror] with perception and some humor. Bessie Muller has brains and a certain objectivity in looking at herself and her easygoing family, but it takes time for her to realize that her overeating is a compensation for certain lacks she must overcome. Her journal reveals her discovery that just as the basilisk died when it saw its image in a mirror, so one can overcome faults when one sees them clearly and stops making excuses for them. Of course, there is more to the plot—college life, dates and parties, Bessie's determination to write, her roommate's devotion to dancing and hopeless love for a young married professor. But the special appeal lies in felicity of phrase and delightful people. This is a work of art. (pp. 469-70)

Margaret C. Scoggin, in The Horn Book Magazine (copyrighted, 1953 by...