Ah, the teen years - acne, growing pains, awkward situations, and books. Always books. I love the urgency found in many young adult novels - it was a time in life when everything seemed so freaking important and life ending/changing. And some stuff was, sure...but most of it wasn't. I still love young adult books to this day. There's a quality about them that makes me relive a little of my teen years the only way I'd ever want to - through the pages of a novel.
1. Forever by Judy Blume - I still feel tender inside just thinking about this book. Judy dealt with first love and sex so wonderfully. No one beats her for writing for people on the verge of adulthood. I still re-read this book often.
2. Up a Road Slowly by Irene Hunt - I must have read this book at least 10 times in my early teens. I felt a little like I was growing up with Julie.
3. Christopher Pike novels - I started out with the Final Friends party trilogy when I was like 10 or 11 and read them as fast as he could put them out into my teens. I still re-read them.
4. V.C. Andrews Flowers in the Attic & Heaven series - Like, no adults knew we were reading these. And they were way over our heads at the time. It's like a right of passage for young girls to read these. Well, it was. I hope it still is.
5. Sweet Valley Twins & High series - I also felt like I grew up with the Wakefield twins. I read every one of these books. I think I devoured over 15 of them in one week on vacation with my grandparents in Ocean City. Gamma never limited the amount of books she bought me, and she bought a lot that week at a used bookstore. No one in my life ever denied me some bucks for books. It was amazing.
Hope to see you back here to check out or link up for Show Us Your Books with me and Jana of Jana Says this Tuesday, December 8. Bonus holiday giveaway.
Happy birthday to my uncle Billy today!
What are some books you loved as a teen?
LOVED ME some SVH and Babysitters club! Two of my favorites. I also LOVED my mom's Nancy Drew collection, she was soooo cool at 16 with her convertible. Happy Friday, beautiful!
ReplyDeleteSVH was the best as was Nancy Drew and then Agatha Christie books although I read those in middle school!! xo, biana -BlovedBoston
ReplyDeleteok, when i first saw that pic, i legit exclaimed OH MY GOD!! and laughed. because i had that exact same hair in grade 6 LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL. thank you for that wonderful gift that i can re-see every time i go to your blog.
ReplyDeleteSVH was the bomb; i also loved judy blume books and just got a notification that Superfudge came in for Kayla!! she finished Charlotte's Web a few days ago (and was so sad about the ending) but she loved the book.
You devoured books! I loved it. Jmj on the Flowers in the Attic books ! I am an impatient reader. I read a bit, read the end, and leisurely go back and read and enjoy the book and read the end again with every fiction book I read. We always placed big book orders for you at school! Loved it!
ReplyDeleteLove. Your. Momma!
YAS Christopher Pike. I loved his books as a teen...especially the vampire books. Also, I was a child of the Goosebumps and Babysitter's Club era so those were fun as well. And, of course, the American Girl books. LOVE!
ReplyDeleteOh the picture. I used to have the thick bangs too.
ReplyDeleteI spent every cent I had on Sweet Valley books from the time I was 12 until I was about 14. And I re-read them all dozens of times. In fact, I have a student named Jessica and I'm always thinking that maybe her mom got her name from the books because it's not a super-popular name these days.
That picture is money on this Friday morning!! I was definitely on the Sweet Valley bandwagon... and Nancy Drew... and everything else I could get my hands on. There was always $$ for books!
ReplyDeleteI loved Sweet Valley High and the Babysitters Club books. I also really liked all of Judy Blumes books growing up. I remember my mom had a Judy Blume book and I hadn't read it, and apparently it was an "adult themed" book that she'd written, and I couldn't understand why my mom wouldn't let me read it haha. I also loved the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, too!
ReplyDeleteI loved Sweet Valley High too and my dad teased me about it a lot! haha. I also loved The Babysitters Club, Goosebumps, Roald Dahl books, The Outsider, Sisterhood of the travelling pants, The Wrinkle in Time series, Chronicles of Narnia...the list goes on. I was a total book nerd. haha. Your list is great!!
ReplyDeleteUmmm... yeah, I had that hair style too. Wtf were we all thinking??? Aside from being mullet sisters I also adored everything by Judy Blume and V.C. Andrews. I also love your sweater turtleneck combo... brings back memories!
ReplyDeleteHaving a mullet was a rite of passage for growing up in the 80s, I think. I still cringe at all those haircuts when I wanted them to cut around my ears. Awful.
ReplyDeleteI loved the Sweet Valley High books and also the Babysitter's Club. I couldn't read those fast enough and they were so damn short. I loved when they did the super specials because they were much longer than the regular books. I also wanted to read books that were way too old for me, like the book about Jeffrey Dahmer my sister had (that I read when I was 12...over 20 years later, I am still horrified at what I read in that book) and Not Without My Daughter (about an American woman who flees Iran with her daughter after her Iranian husband took them to visit family and then wouldn't let them leave. It also was a movie with Sally Field.) I read that when I was around 10 or 11. I was obsessed with that book.
I loved SVH! I had forgotten about Forever, but that was one I re-read multiple times. I hope I saved my copy, but I haven't seen it in years. I also loved the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and the Princess Diaries series (so much better than the movies).
ReplyDeleteI thought I recognized the name Irene Hunt and I couldn't remember why, but it's because she wrote Across Five Aprils. I read that so many times! I never read anything else by her though. Now I feel like I need to read others!
ReplyDeleteI loved Sweet Valley High!! Oh man I forget how much I loved those twins.
ReplyDeleteI loved that I had someone that loved to read as much as I did! I remember all your Sweet Valley books.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to have to check some of these out!! I read a lot of Lurlene McDaniel, dying kids falling in love that was my jam in high school. I also liked Sweet Valley High and started reading a Christian author Dee Henderson in high school.
ReplyDeleteSweet Valley High is the reason I wished i were a twin. I think I read all of them. and my bff and I read and shared all of the VC Andrews books. I "borrowed" (OK stole) a copy of Forever from one of my teachers.
ReplyDeleteSweet Valley High is the reason I wished i were a twin. I think I read all of them. and my bff and I read and shared all of the VC Andrews books. I "borrowed" (OK stole) a copy of Forever from one of my teachers.
ReplyDeleteI was always afraid to read the Flowers in the Attic series - haha
ReplyDeleteMy best friend and I were just talking about Forever, I read it as a high schooler, I want to go back and read it as an adult now!
ReplyDeleteI LOVED VC Andrews as a teen, but recently tried to read one....it was painful!!
ReplyDeleteIf I'm re-reading the original books of the Flowers or Heaven series, I recognize them as trash but still enjoy them. Anything else, nope!
DeleteI'm pretty sure I read every single Sweet Valley High book and Flowers in the Attic is one of my favorites!
ReplyDeleteLOVE that photo of you!! I was such a nerd and actually loved the books we read in English class... Great Gatsby, Lord of the Flies, Animal Farm.
ReplyDeleteLOVED Sweet Valley Twins and Sweet Valley High too! I even read Sweet Valley Kids when I was younger too. I was super excited when the show came out, but was disappointed at how many details they got wrong :-P
ReplyDeleteHappy Friday <3
I didn't read Forever until a few years ago and I've never read any Sweet Valley! I am ashamed to admit I didn't read much as a teen other than what I had to for school. But in junior high I was all about Flowers in the Attic, RL Stine, and Just As Long As We're Together by Judy.
ReplyDeleteI think I read every sweet Valley ever - kids, high, university you name it lol and Judy Blume was one of my faves!
ReplyDeleteJude Blume really changed my life as an adolescent and I honestly feel some sort of debt to her as a result. Forever was and remains one of my absolute favorite books of all time. I reread it not too long ago and it still has as much of an effect on me as ever. All her teen titles though were amazing and I still have my old tattered copies!
ReplyDeleteI read Sweet Vally, Nancy Drew, BSC, and Little House books all through my childhood and adolescence too, and they'll always have a place in my heart. When I was in middle school I discovered Sloppy Firsts and spent the rest of my formative years growing up with the Jessica Darling series. If you have any inkling still toward YA and haven't read that series by Megan McCafferty, I can't recommend it highly enough. Did a re-read this past winter and was enthralled still!
Awesome list Steph - I loved reading Judy Blume as a youngin'! :) Have a great weekend lovely and definitely enjoying that photo flashback lol! Take Care -Iva
ReplyDeleteIt should come as no surprise that these were all in heavy rotation for me as well. My daughter asked for some books for Christmas/Hanukkah and my little sister, who is also an avid reader, is buying them for her. Along with that, she went through an entire box of books our parents still had in their house and she found VC Andrews, Sweet Valley High, and all of them. I am so excited to get them back into my house and share them with the child when she's old enough.
ReplyDeleteI still love SVH and Babysitters Club. My friend and I are volunteering at the Scholastic Warehouse Sale next week and I may pick up all the books.
ReplyDeleteI miss the Christopher Pike books! He still writes some adults books now too! =)
ReplyDeleteFor a brief time I was like obsessed with the Flowers in the attic movie but I was definitely WAY too young to understand any of it...I read the first 3 books in the series too..Wowza! =)
Melanie | Blog: Toots + Dill
I didn't read much as a kid or teenager. I would pick up a random book here, read a book for school there, but with no consistency. Throughout college and during my 20s, I was a sporadic reader at best. My inner avid reader didn't emerge until I was in my 30s.
ReplyDeleteI love the femullet! I am guilty of sporting one of those myself back in the day!
I think there are a bunch of us former femullet girls. Sisters of the Bad Hair Club!
DeleteI love/d all of these books too. Funny story: I stole all my grandmother's VC Andrews books all the time.
ReplyDelete"femullet" hahahahahahahahahha! JUST WHAT I ALWAYS WANTED!!!!!! HOW DID YOU KNOW?!
ReplyDeleteThe Sweet Valley series were definitely some of my favorites, too. I thought the Wakefield twins were absolute goddesses! lol
I loved Christopher Pike books! They were so creepy and at the time I felt that they were super "grown up".
ReplyDeleteI was also a big fan of the Sweet Valley Series. Once again for the "grown up" factor!
Oh my goodness I loved the sweet valley series! There was a teacher that found a bunch of them (in a dumpster with the covers torn off, super sketch I know) for me, and I devoured them! They were such great books!
ReplyDeleteTHAT HAIR!!! I want to go back and re-read the sweet valley books. I miss them.
ReplyDeleteI loved the Sweet Valley series. Totally defined a lot of my childhood. I never really read the Jude Blume books but I am reading one for a book challenge. That hair is EPIC!
ReplyDeleteI absolutely loved Sweet Valley High!!! I think I started reading Nicholas Sparks in high school too.
ReplyDeleteOur oldest niece is turning 11 and I'm so excited to reread books with her and be email pen pals :) It's like our own little book club. Her Christmas list was incredible.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, that picture is amazing and I love that you shared it!
ReplyDeleteI loved the Sweet Valley books! I still have all of my old books in storage at my mom's house. I kept them just in case I ever decided to have a child (and with the assumption that that child will be a girl, because I'm pretty sure no preteen/teenage boy would want to read those).
I can't remember the exact title of this Christopher Pike book I loved, but I think it was Starlight Crystal or something similar. It was about someone (I can't even remember if it was a guy or girl now) who went on a mission to outer space and returned to find everyone they loved dead and gone, but they were still the same age. Well, it's kind of vague now (I probably read this when I was somewhere between 11-14 and I'm 31 now, so obviously it's not too fresh in my mind!), but I remember thinking that was such a sad story. I now feel like I need to look this up!
I read a lot as a kid and as a teenager, but I don't think I truly fell in love with any one book until I was in college (which, technically, still included two of my late teenage years). I think I started seeing things differently then, and I think my book choices reflected that. I discovered many of my favorite authors during that time.