Dear Readers,


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Thursday, November 08, 2007

Favorite YA Novels?


Over at hipster-feminist snark central Jezebel, a massive, massive thread has popped up over gals favorite adolescent reads. Some of the authors contually being shouted out up are true heroines of mine and Egalitarian Bookworm Chicks like Judy Blume, Lois Lowry, Madeleine L'Engle and Natalie Babbitt and YA series like the Babysitters Club, Boxcar Children, and Nancy Drew. I'd like to give a very personal shout-out to the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys Super-Mysteries, because Nancy Drew was always just about to make out with Fred Hardy before she decided to return to boring Ned Nickerson, and Joe Hardy and Bess Marvin had a great back-and-forth rapport.

And as I think back to my youhful bookworm days there are just all these old YA novels from my mom and grandma's generation--The Girl of the Limberlost, Daddy Long Legs, E. Nesbitt's entire ouevre and Beverley Cleary's charmingly dated "teen" novels--Fifteen being the one I remember best. They were so much fun despite their old-ness.

God, reading was so awesome (and so much less work) back in the day. I'm currently being pushed by one current tutee and one former student, both still in high school, to read Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series, which are super hot right now, and I can't wait til winter break to immerse myself in them.

So, readers, what were your favorite girl or guy-hood reads? Nothing is too trashy for EBC's standards.

6 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:37 PM

    The Enchanted Castle (E Nesbit), The Diamond in the Window (J Langton) and absolutely anything by Roald Dahl would have me hiding beneath my covers, reading by flashlight into the wee hours of the morning.

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  2. I LOVED "The Diamond in the Window." Also a huge RD fan--my faves were the BFG and Matilda and the Witches.

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  3. Anonymous10:41 PM

    did you ever read the tom swift novels? i was really into them when i was like 7 or 8, but in retrospect i think they were kinda racist. :(

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  4. As were the original Nancy Drew and Bobbsey Twins books, alas.

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  5. Dude, YES. I was an indiscriminate reader back in the day: Judy Blume, Lois Lowry, and all that other good stuff mixed with the Baby-Sitters' club and of course, them twins of Sweet Valley. Anyone else love Gordon Korman as much as I did?

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  6. Anonymous11:37 AM

    Lots of Nancy Drew, I liked the old-school books and never approved her being mixed up with the Hardy Boys :) I loved Lois Lowry and also read all the Babysitter Club Books.

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