The Cheerleader Author:Ruth Doan MacDougall On the 25th anniversary of the publication of this national best-seller, The Cheerleader has been rereleased. Here is what it was like to grow up in the 1950s in the years of ponytails, pajama parties, and "parking," when to be popular was important and when, if you were a girl, being important meant being a cheerleader. Searchingly hones... more »t, achingly real, The Cheerleader is a bittersweet novel about the loss of innocence, the growth of passion, and the awakening of ambition. It recalls all the joy, excitement, and pain of crossing the bridge from childhood to young womanhood in the Fabulous Fifties, when sex was still a mystery and goals were clearly defined--perhaps for the last time.« less