To save the princess, turn to pg 46 . . .to open the box, turn to page 81

Young Adult literature, as they now call it, has changed so much since I was a kid—back then, we had some prominent titles (but nothing like today) and some pretty endearing series’(but mostly they suffered from the “Nicholas Sparks Effect,” meaning that it was all about quantity—and how many books could be written per month, not quality, and they were mostly all the same plot lines). As a teacher of English, some of my favorite seminars involve just talking about the latest trends in Young Adult lit—we truly are in a “golden age” of this type of genre, and there really is some amazing (and very controversial) stuff out there. I remember Cha Cha getting concerned when I was reading the book “Blubber” by Judy Blume, because it involved a bunch of mean kids pranking a fat girl in their class—pretty innocuous stuff when compared to today’s YA stories involving rape, oral sex, and heavy duty racism. I bet if more parents were as concerned with what their kids were reading as they were in their SUV’s, then there’d be a LOT of very angry parents. But, to counterpoint, I would argue that I’ve never read as good of stuff as I read today when I check out the latest in YA books; they are rich in character development and language. Furthermore, I would argue that they blow away any of the so-called “Barnes and Crapple Bestsellers” that are the same old recycled gobbledygook about some chick who lost everything including her husband and then goes to “find herself” in a rustic cabin on the coast of Virginia and meets some other chick who ends up being her long lost sister and then they have to rectify all the issues about how she wasn’t the favorite daughter like the other one and then she had to move to the godforsaken town to “find herself” in the first place but she couldn’t because she was so plagued by bad memories but in the end through some witty dialogue and forced symbolism they find each other . . .blah blah blah. Or, one written by a pasty white dude about how we can “reclaim” America. I want to die.

I dont mean to "diss" the kids book writer's of my generation--I read some really great stuff when I was young!! Here's a "reminiscing list" of some of my childhood favorites (note: these arent "kiddy picture books," but rather books I read in my formative years of middle school, etc). I know Johnny C, being the librarian he is, will chime in here . . . as will my fellow residential book maven Sally Piles Goldsmith. But what books do you remember from when you were a kid?

Oh . . .one more thing . .. who remembers those "Troll Book Club" things we did in school--where they gave you the thin flimsy newsprint emblazoned with all the latest and greatest books they were offering that month? Then there was the "one kid" in class who always got TONS of crap on the day the books were delivered. Those things were awesome!

Return of the Indian
Indian in the cupboard
Tales of a fourth grade nothing
Superfudge
Maddie and me and the dirty book
Blubber
Henry and the paper route

Beezus and Ramona

The best of Penthouse Forum

Ramona the Pest
Mr Popper's Penguins
Where the red fern grows
Baby sitters club series (including the "super specials")
Sweet valley high
Sleepover twins
The Hardy boys
Matt Christopher sports books like:
The catcher with the glass arm
Sink it rusty
The kid who only hit home runs
The reluctant pitcher

Encyclopedia Brown

Choose your own adventure!!!!