Young Adult Literature

[aims]

One of my favorite books was 'The Other Side of Dark' by Joan Lowery Nixon. It is about a young girl who saw her mother's killer and then got shot and slipped into a coma for years. When she woke up she was older and she has to deal with both finding her mother's killer and dealing with missing like 8 years of her young adult life. I think she goes from like preteen to almost a senior in high school.

[Deleted]

I went through a Joan Lowery Nixon phase at one point years ago and read just about every one of her suspense thrillers but at some point got tired of the formulaic repeat.
Her best two (most original and not formulaic) were The Other Side of Dark and I think The Seance (I remember thinking that one was pretty creepy).

[Deleted]

I can't believe no one has yet mentioned Marguerite Henry. I lived for those books. Misty of Chincoteague and Stormy, Misty's Foal most of all. But I read every darn one of them, over and over again. Jeez, I even had Misty the horse's birthday on my little kitten calendar hanging in my bedroom. Obsessed, I tell you.

I also loved the Encyclopedia Brown books. Anyone remember those?

[magazinewhore]

Oh, January, I was a horse and book obsessed kid who LOVED all those Henry books. I even had a huge collection of Breyer horses including Misty and Stormy. There were also books (and I can't remember the author or names) where the protagonist went to her aunt and uncle's horse ranch in Montana and she has several platonic, horse-related adventures with area kids?

[Deleted]

magazinewhore said:

I even had a huge collection of Breyer horses including Misty and Stormy.

Me too. Of course! I still have 'em.

[groovethang]

ihatejanuary said:

I also loved the Encyclopedia Brown books. Anyone remember those?

I love Encyclopedia Brown books so much that I read them to my five-month-old son before bed. The local Borders had a 4-book gift pack that I snapped up a few weeks ago.

Of course, I feel 'wicked smaht' because the mysteries are so easy to solve now that I'm older

[dwanollah]

I've been re-reading (in anticipation of another paper) a bunch of Norma Klein this week. And, holy shit, she was groundbreaking in the 80s when her stuff came out, but now, considering the state of the world (and feminism), she seems practically revolutionary!

[kanding]

I've said this before, but Norma Klein is (was, RIP) amazing. I think her books are as important today as when they were published. Hell, given the current social climate in much of the US, especially regarding sex, they are necessary. She was the only writer to create characters with whom I wanted to be friends.

I think I'm going to need to buy myself some of her books for Christmas.

[ivy]

Does anyone remember a series called Best Friends? The friends were named Teri, Dawn, Sonia, and Angela. The other day I re-read one called "Angela and the King-Sized Crusade". Holy God! It should have been called "Angela Becomes Anorexic." It's about how Angela (who's fat) decides to lose weight so she can be the star of the school play. She does things like have diet soda for breakfast, have one piece of an artichoke for lunch, and eat a small salad with nothing on it for dinner. And the book paints this as being good. No, seriously. Angela ends up losing weight and everyone says how great she looks. And then it ends. No, "Angela, you look weak and your hair is falling out, I think you need a doctor" comments from anyone. I read this book when I was ten and I don't remember thinking much about it, but re-reading it again, I was completely horrified!

[Deleted]

Long May She Reign, the 4th book in Ellen Emerson White's President's Daughter series was recently released, and the publisher is going to reissue the others next year. It's a 720 pager! I can't bring myself to read it yet.