Young Adult Literature

[dnt]

I loved Marilyn Sachs! The Amy and Laura series was awesome, but I did love the Veronica Ganz (neighborhood bully) books the best. She wrote a book called The Real Truth About Mary Rose from the perspective of Veronica's daughter that was my favorite.

Dwanollah did an awesome review of Class Pictures on her web site, and I'm also still trying to figure out what she was thinking with Baby Sister.

[dwanollah]

and I'm also still trying to figure out what she was thinking with Baby Sister.

I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE?!?!

O Frabjous Day!

[chiqui]

She wrote a book called The Real Truth About Mary Rose from the perspective of Veronica's daughter that was my favorite.

WAAAH! That was one of the most depressing books I've ever read. I think I stopped reading Sachs after that, because it was just so, so, depressing and disturbing.

<<SPOILER>> I mean, I can see the point about finding the truth about your family history, but torching the last of poor Rosemary's personal possessions? Erasing her existence forever from the earth, since there never was a body to recover?? <</SPOILER>>

Though I admit the part about the Puerto-Rican artist father was good, and the conflict between them and the traditional (newly) upper-class Jewish family of Uncle Stanley. She captured the 'feel' of New York very well.

I think the same author also wrote a book set in France during the occupation, about a Jewish girl who hides from the Nazis in an orphanage, while the rest of her family is sent to the camps... also very depressing, because in the end she's planning for her parents' return, while it was clear to the reader that they would not.

[dnt]

She captured the 'feel' of New York very well.

She really did; when I think about my childhood fascination with her books, along with books by Mary Rodgers (Freaky Friday) and Constance Green (Girl Called Al), it's not surprising that I decided to go to NYU. They just made NYC seem like such an amazing place to a suburban kid.

The Real Truth About Mary Rose was depressing, but I really liked the way it showed how Veronica and Stanley had turned out as adults. If you think that was depressing, you should've read A Bear's House.

The other book you're thinking of, A Pocket Full of Seeds, was sort of ambiguous as to whether she'd see her family again; I always chose to believe she would. Probably unrealistic, given where and when her family was taken, but I didn't know much about the Holocaust when I read it.

It's funny, how all of her books are coming back to me now...I remember reading A Secret Friend and relating to it because pretty much the same thing happened to me:

<<spoiler>>My best friend in elementary school suddenly stopped talking to me, replaced me with a new best friend, then dumped her, and the two of us became friends.<</spoiler>>

It was very cathartic at the time. She also wrote a book called Summer's Lease that must have been at least partly autobiographical.

[chiqui]

The other book you're thinking of, A Pocket Full of Seeds, was sort of ambiguous as to whether she'd see her family again; I always chose to believe she would. Probably unrealistic, given where and when her family was taken, but I didn't know much about the Holocaust when I read it.

THAT was the title! I'd forgotten.

I think the book's ending depends on the reader. The horrors of war and of Dachau and the concentration camps were drilled into me very fimrly as a young child, so that's what I chose to believe.

In that book I always remember the bit about the tripe at the orphange's dinner table-- they all have paper bags between their knees and sneak the tripe into it when the nuns weren't watching. It's funny because now I will eat tripe and find it very tasty.

[sumire]

I loved the His Dark Materials trilogy, so I've been reading Phillip Pullman's Sally Lockhart books (out of order--I read #1 and The Tin Princess in the spring, and then #3 and #2 in the past two weeks). The fact that he doesn't do cozy, sanitized Victoriana, doesn't pull his punches, adds real weight and tension to the stories--he gives you this self-empowered heroine of near-Mary-Sue qualities, and then shows you how precarious her position really would have been in those times. Of course, it doesn't help that Sally is usually up against villains worthy of James Bond, and that the author has no qualms about killing off sympathetic characters. It really almost gets to be _too_ much--there was a point in The Tiger in the Well where I was so upset, I almost wanted to quit reading. And then yesterday, as I was finishing up The Shadow in the North, the analogy finally hit me--at times, the Sally Lockhart books can be a bit like A Series of Unfortunate Events without the humor.

That said, though, they _are_ very good books, with both entertainment value and literary/moral merit. I think they'd be particularly good for sparking the fire of feminism in otherwise complacent young women.

[Deleted]

For those who are interested, I saw that Ellen Emerson White will soon be publishing a sequel to her popular Long Live the Queen/White House Autumn YA books (probably 15-20 years later, but better late than never, I guess).

[Deleted]

Anyone remember going to the book fairs in middle school and seeing the young adult melodrama books?

There was one called, Missing: Carrie Phillips, Age 15 and it's sequel Don't Tell Mom. There was also a story about a girl's older brother who used steriods. However, that one wasn't as good.

My obsession with those books explains my later interest in Sweet Valley High and then, WB dramas. It's funny how the books I read as a kid shaped what I watch on tv and in movies.

[Deleted]

Remember all the "Face on the Milk Carton" books? I loved those. Had such a crush on the guy--I think his name was Reese or Reece or something like that.

[Maddiemoo]

Reese! Man, in the made-for-TV-movie, he was dreeeamy. I thought the books were pretty good, although the last one I read (I think it was The Voice on the Radio?) kinda ended abruptly. I think there was one more after that, though. Anyone care to indulge a poor soul on what happened?