While surfing through my daily blog reads, I found a post by Nemesis that really brought back memories. She was weeding out old YA books at her library and came across loads of '80s teen dramas. And, sadly, I recall reading way too many of them. My favorite?
I Won't Let Them Hurt You, by Linda Barr. The story of a teenage babysitter who begins finding mysterious bruises on her young charge. She decides to stand up for the boy, believing his father has been abusive. Shocker: it's the mother! *gasp*
So then I started trying to remember other favorites. Check out this sweet list of YA crapola:
The Face on the Milk Carton, by Caroline B. Cooney (Who hasn't read that one?)
Homecoming, by Cynthia Voigt
Flowers in the Attic, by V.C. Andrews (almost all of the series, actually)
Why Did She Have to Die? by Lurlene McDaniel
Fear Street Series, by R.L. Stine
Don't Look Behind You, by Lois Duncan (The main character's name was April. Ooohhh!)
But one of my favorites that I still stand behind was Say Goodnight, Gracie, by Julie Reece Deaver. Still love it.
11 comments:
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I'd forgotten I'd read the child abuse book until I read the description! Then I started laughing uncontrollably out loud at the horrible title.
My crack when I was a tween/early teenager was Judy Blume and Christopher Pike books. I couldn't get enough about divorce, periods, and horror. I think I have a biggole box in my parents' basement... I'm going to go dig them up.
Great, thanks for ruining I Won't Let Them Hurt You.
I read all the Lois Duncan books. They scared the crap out of me.
TOWR, I remember staring at the girl on the cover of IWLTHY and thinking, "Why can't my hair be like that?" Oh, brother.
Zuc, Sorry I spoiled the ending. And I SO loved Lois Duncan books.
Hey! I really loved Cynthia Voigt's Homecoming series. And her other stuff too. She had some crappy covers, and sure it was worthy of making a Lifetime movie out of it....
I loved Lois Duncan books as well. But did you read the sequel to The Face on the Milk Carton? I sure did. I remember the boyfriend in the story -his name was Reeve.
I had a whole set of Lurlene McDaniel depressers . . . partly b/c they appealed to my incredibly emotional side and partly b/c they were often in the $1 pile at the book fairs. (More reading for the money!)
Too funny.
Oh my gosh, I'd forgotten all about IWLTHY until I saw that cover. I totally read that book.
Haha, I read loads of R. L. Stine books, and a stack of other trashy teen reads I am embarrassed to admit to! I passed them on to my nieces, who more than likely promptly threw them away. I'm sure I kept a couple somewhere though...
Oh, I loved Homecoming. And Lois Duncan wrote some freaky books. Killing Mr. Griffin and Summer of Fear - with the girl who had the cousin who came to live with her, and everyone thought the cousin was awesome, and the girl's boyfriend fell in love with her, and - eeeek!!
Hmmm... I really want to read Summer of Fear now.
1. A local school actually has Face On the Milk Carton on their assigned reading list! INSANE.
2. Lois Duncan - she's the one whose daughter was killed mysteriously right? Like kidnapped and murdered? She must have written a book on it because I remember details. I refuse to google it because her fiction was scary enough (when I was 13) -- I'd rather avoid the non-fiction part of it.
I remember reading a book about a cat with cancer and crying my eyes out. And I vaguely remember a child abuse one call Don't Hurt Laurie, but I don't remember if I liked it or not.
Loved Ursula LeGuin and Madeline L'Engle and Susan Cooper, but I don't know if those count as teen books. I think they're more tween.
All I really remember about "Homecoming" was that the kids had to conserve their money and bought a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter. I thought that was brilliant.
Laura, You're so right! Duncan did write a book about her daughter's mysterious murder. I guess the case is still unsolved.
"Don't Hurt Laurie" sounds really familiar, but I just can't remember if I actually read it.
Post a Comment