I was thinking about all the books that I loved loved loved when I was a kid reading novels in the children's section of the library.
My aunt bought me this Judy Blume novel and I became hooked on everything she'd written.
Bruce Coville provided me with ghost mysteries! So did Betty Wren Wright. I remember being seriously creeped out when the dolls acted out the murder!
This series by Candace Ransom was handed down to me by a friend in fifth grade and I remember wishing the books went for longer than ages 12-15.
This pink cover of Barthe DeClements has stuck in my head over the years. Gotta love girls doing makeup!Barbara Park, in her pre-Junie B. days, was my hero. Her books were HILARIOUS. SKINNYBONES and OPERATION: DUMP THE CHUMP are other fab reads that I still recommend to kids today when they ask for humor.
As you can see, with little exception they fell into two categories: realistic contemporary fiction, or realistic contemporary ghost stories.
I know the advent of Harry Potter in 1997 changed the bookshelves in the children's areas at libraries across the country, but in the late 1980s-early 1990s, were there many historical ghost stories/fantasies/sci-fi books for kids?
What did you love reading in the rockin' '80s?
Deena, Miss Subbing for Pubbing
2 comments:
I read these same books! Wow, we didn't have much choice back then huh?
I loved problem books: Deenie, Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack, Go Ask Alice. Girls whose parents were forcing them into cults, that sort of thing. I was also the kind of nerd who loved every book my teachers assigned, up until A Separate Peace in high school.
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