Young Adult books...what did you love? (sci fi, rowling, harry potter)

[Tracysherm]

As a teen, I really don't remember really seeing a "young adult" genre. I guess it's because all we had in the 80s was the mall bookstores like Waldenbooks.

I've always loved reading, but I remember that as a teen, for a few years, I had trouble finding stuff I liked, until I went 100% into adult books (no, not that kind of "adult books"!)

I wasn't yet into reading classics (real literature) for enjoyment. I still saw that as a necessary evil for school only. Glad I grew out of that.

So as a young adolescent, I tried a few "teen" books. I remember one book called "Beautiful Girl" about a girl who was so pretty that people were mean to her most of her life. Then I remember a book about a teenage girl who had diabetes, but she didn't want anyone to know, thinking she'd be treated as a freak. But these books were pretty boring. My friends used to read the Sweet Valley High books, about a pair of popular twins, but I found those incredibly, painfully boring too. I do remember one teen book I had, that had been written in the 70s, I think it was called The Butterfly Girl, about a teenage girl who got pregnant and ran away, and drifted in and out of all kinds of "hippie" settings. I liked that, and read it over and over.

I also read Go Ask Alice like 50+ times during those years. I also enjoyed the Judy Blume books targeted at teens (not the kid ones). I think some of them were Deenie, Wifey, and of course, Forever.


So I started reading my mom's books around 12-13. That's when I got into the VC Andrews Flowers in the Attic series. These were supposedly grown-up books, but if I go back and read them now, they do really appeal more to teenage girls than to adults. But the VC Andrews books got really awful after VC Andrews died and ghostwriters took over.

I also got into Jean M Auel's Clan of the Cave Bear series, but the series took longer to write than my teen years lasted (she finally wrote the last freaking book last year!) I remember that being the first time I got to read about actual explicit sex Oh, speaking of sex, I just remembered a book that us girls would circulate around among us, around 8th grade, underlining passages and marking pages. It was called Punish Me With Kisses and was completely raunchy with lots of sex. But we alll loved it and would constantly pass it to each other (I don't even know which of us actually owned it, but we all borrowed it). I remember whoever had it would have to hide it when at school, so teachers would not catch us with it! I'll have to find that book again and see if it's as scandalous as I remember.

My mom also had these crime/mystery books by Lawrence Sanders, which were clearly for grownups, but at least the stories were interesting.

Then I also got into true crime books a bit, first reading Helter Skelter, and serial killer books, like Ted Bundy, the Boston Strangler, and The Shoemaker, about a serial killer in Phillly, near where I grew up.

I also liked to read horror stories back then. Those I would get at the town library. Lots of books of collections of ghost stories, and novels about ghosts and hauntings. Oddly, I never got much into Stephen King beyond Carrie and Christine.

[Ohiogirl81]

How could I forget: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. I still love reading it.

[P47P47]

Originally Posted by kevxu

When I was in first grade we were reading about Dick and Jane, and their dog, Spot: "See Spot run. Run, Spot, Run...."

My first grade teacher was boring the hell out of me with Dick & Jane until I told her that I wanted to read a story to the class from a book my mother had recently bought for me. The book was about submarines, titled "From The Turtle To The Nautilus". The story I read was about the Turtle attacking the British fleet in New York harbor during the Revolution.

The first sentence was, "David Bushnell was a mathemetician and engineer who lived at the time of the Revolutionary War."

A week or two later, I was in second grade.

[P47P47]

Originally Posted by sunshineleith

John Christopher - turned me on to science fiction and I was ruined for life

Loved the White Mountains/Tripods trilogy. Read them again just recently. Still great.

[kevxu]

Originally Posted by P47P47

My first grade teacher was boring the hell out of me with Dick & Jane until I told her that I wanted to read a story to the class from a book my mother had recently bought for me. The book was about submarines, titled "From The Turtle To The Nautilus". The story I read was about the Turtle attacking the British fleet in New York harbor during the Revolution.

The first sentence was, "David Bushnell was a mathemetician and engineer who lived at the time of the Revolutionary War."

A week or two later, I was in second grade.

Funny story! A year of hell avoided. At that age I was reading the newspaper - with some difficulties, due mainly to my lack of knowledge of adult activities. I constantly badgered my aunt and my father to explain the words - and situations - I didn't understand.

One day I used the word "yeggs" in class, and the teacher looked at me, "Yeggs? yeggs?" She was good natured about it, and only suggested to my mother that clearly I needed something from the library more challenging than "See Spot run!"

[SeeingJane]

I loved the Anne of Green Gables books. Have them all still and have read them again and again over the years, even as an adult.

Also liked anything by Louisa M. Alcott and M. M. Kaye. In high school I started reading Michener. Great books for someone who loves history. Favorite one of all? Centennial.

[baker Freesia]

In High school I read "The Day the World Went Away" ~ Ann Schraff I must have read that book a 1/2 dozen times. I liked Adventure books, still like reading adventure books like that once in awhile, the adventure/mystery keeps you guessing/wondering, like plodding right along on the adventure itself.

[stan4]

Everything by Beverly Cleary
Everything by Judy Blume
Everything by E.W. Hildick (most of which are out of print now)
The Whipping Boy
Encyclopedia Brown
The Great Brain

There were so many.

[fruitlassie]

The Great Brain books were probably my favorite series ever. I read them when I was around 7-8 though - same as Beverly Clearly, Judy Blume, etc. I liked the Betsy-Tacy books, the Little House Series, Caddie Woodlawn, All-Of-A-Kind Family, Elizabeth Enright, Lois Lenski. Even though I grew up in the 80s, I was into reading about history and simpler times, I guess. When I was a couple years older I read Paula Danziger, Katherine Paterson, Zilpha Keatly Snyder, E.L. Konigsburg, etc. I read a ton of fiction back then, now it's 95% nonfiction.

I sure would hate to be young today and be stuck with all the fantasy & vampire stuff that's popular - never cared for that genre at all. I did enjoy the Prydain chronicles, though, as someone else mentioned.

[weathering]

I *loved* the Narnia series by C S Lewis. Absolute classics. Anyone who hasn't read them should give them a go, even adults. And the 'His Dark Materials' trilogy by Phillip Pullman is probably the modern equivalent - recommended for all youngsters.

In comparison, the Harry Potter series pales into hyper-commercial, unoriginal, copycat drivel.