"and not some trad wife" Hahaha oh goodness that had me giggling. This list is amazing.
I have memories of reading Where the Red Fern Grows, and Marley and Me every night, over and over and just sobbing under my covers with a flash light. I would literally skip to the saddest parts. I think I must have been working through some things!
Oh my gosh, I was literally just thinking about the face on the milk carton as I do frequently. Sometimes I wonder why I’m so afraid of my daughter being taken and then I’m like oh it’s just that because of that book.
Wonder by Rachel Vail is my holy grail childhood book. I felt so seen when I read it! I think she does such a great job of really touching on those junior high cliques and how hard it can be to fit in. I still remember specific lines from that book!!
I'm also apparently older than you and know none of these books. The one I remember most is "The Egypt Game" by Zilpha Snyder, still have it somewhere. I think it was published in the 70s and my mum picked it up 10 years later at a supermarkt checkout. Other kinds wanted the candy, I wanted the books.
I was a VORACIOUS reader as a child, and I also read the books I owned over and over again (which I learned as an adult is weird?). In common with you I had the Babysitter's Club (I also read alllll the Babysitter's Little Sister books about Karen, Kristy's younger stepsister!), and Face on a Milk Carton.
I was also really into all the American Girl books, and the Dear America diaries (ribbon bookmarks...say less!).
I also loved Things not Seen by Andrew Clements - if you haven't read that one it's so good!
Also vivid memories of my third grade teacher reading aloud the Junie B. Jones series to us.
Oh, my goodness, so much I agree with here! You've Got Mail- agreed on all counts. One of the best rom-coms of all time.
I was obsessed with The Baby-Sitters Club and Sweet Valley Twins. My whole room was Baby-Sitters Club stuff at some point.
I actually haven't read Baby Alicia is Dying but I HAVE read several other Lurlene McDaniel books, the vast majority of which are about dying teenagers. I remember thinking after I read The Fault in Our Stars that it was like John Green took a Lurlene McDaniel plot and rewrote it so that it was actually good.
The Face on the Milk Carton and its sequels! Oh, man. Looking back, Janie's long-lost siblings were AWFUL to her. I know the situation was hard for them, too, but they acted like it was her fault that she was kidnapped at age three!
I love Lois Lowry- A Summer to Die is a much better dying teenager book than anything by Lurlene McDaniel. I read The Giver when I was ten and it absolutely blew my mind.
I loved Here's to You, Rachel Robinson, too. I always liked reading books where the protagonist was a smart girl. I remember the storyline in that book about her asshole brother who kept saying deliberately cruel things to everyone and her friends not thinking he was that bad.
The Baby Sitters Club was my entire personality for years. My proudest parenting moment happened last week when my five-year-old packed all her BSC books for our trip to Hawaii and ZERO toys.
The Baby Sitter's Club books got me through 6th grade. We were still bussing kids across town in Las Vegas in the late 80s, and it was the first time in my life that my mother didn't take me to school. There were other things happening in my life at the time, and I was so lost and unhappy. I would read TBC books under my desk all day through school, I'd read them over and over. I too loved one of the bigger books, but they were a life saver. Christopher Pike wrote a book called Remember When in the early 90s that has stuck with me my whole life. There's a sad boy with diabetes and a murdered girlfriend and a vaguely single white female vibe by a mystery sister, but the thing that I think about on the regular is the one character tries to kill the sad boy by injecting an air bubble into his veins. I think about this every time I see a syringe.
I read like a fiend when I was young, everything and anything (found a paperback copy around the house of Mario Puzo's The Godfather when I was around 10, maybe, and my mother promptly took it away from me and threw it in the trash) -- but the book I remember so clearly, as if I was carrying it around just yesterday -- was Harriet the Spy. My dad even went into NYC (we lived in NJ then) and bought me a very nice coat that looked exactly like Harriet's.
I am told that I learned to read much earlier than anyone expected, and started with Dr. Suess books, which my Auntie Ann, an educator herself, gave me. Before I reached ten, I had made it my mission to read every book in the Bobbsey Twins series, although I think there were times I found Freddy and Flossie (the younger pair of twins, as annoying as Bert and Nan, the older pair, did.
From there it was on to Nancy Drew, and I realized I loved mysteries. The Hardy Boys were a pass, though, until they arrived on my TV screen in 1977 (and it's telling that I forgot that the TV series, which ran for 46 episodes, also involved Nancy Drew). Of Shirley Jones' children, David and Shaun Cassidy, I much preferred David (after watching every episode of The Partridge Family), and seeing Shaun on covers of Tiger Beat magazine week after week turned me off, but Parker Stevenson as the older Hardy Boy? With his blue eyes and feathered hair—I even had a poster of Farrah Fawcett in my bedroom because I LOVED feathered hair—kept me tuning in.
I don't remember any teachers reading to me at either Tappan Grammar (grades 1 and 2) or at Saint Ann's Parochial (grades 3 through 6), but I was a a big public library kid by then and read non-stop. The first book I remember wanting to read over and over at the Carnegie library in Nyack was The Persian Boy by Mary Renault. Combine ancient history with homosexuality—whenever any adult in my family asked what it was about, I simply said it was about Alexander the Great, but it was told from the perspective of a young male Persian eunuch who becomes infatuated with Alexander and, luckily for him, gets some attention from Alexander when his regular boyfriend, Hephaestion, was otherwise busy. Did I compare myself to two Macedonian warriors or to a Persian eunuch? I did not, but oh, it was a relief to see my nascent sexuality on the page!
When I was sent to a private school in grade 7, my love for books really took off. I learned to read in French and Latin, too, but it was there that I was introduced to Dickens, Melville, and, in the school's library, Frank Herbert. I loved reading Dune—it indirectly sparked a lifelong interest in Arabic art.
I’m much older than you, so I don’t know any of these books. I did love Judy Blume’s Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret and the boy-puberty one (I think he wears a raincoat a lot to hide the spontaneous erections?).
My fourth grade teacher read aloud to us and one of the books was called Cowslip. It was about a little enslaved girl. I’m positive it was wrong on so many levels, but it sparked my nine year old imagination like crazy.
Another book that I adored was Island of the Blue Dolphins. So problematic. Turns out, the 70s weren’t great either.
Omg the outsiders is SUCH a formative book from middle school for me, and then when I was interning in my first teaching role it was the book I was assigned to do with the students and it was like the universe telling me teaching was my calling!!!
"and not some trad wife" Hahaha oh goodness that had me giggling. This list is amazing.
I have memories of reading Where the Red Fern Grows, and Marley and Me every night, over and over and just sobbing under my covers with a flash light. I would literally skip to the saddest parts. I think I must have been working through some things!
Congrats on your Vice Principalship!!!
Oh my gosh, I was literally just thinking about the face on the milk carton as I do frequently. Sometimes I wonder why I’m so afraid of my daughter being taken and then I’m like oh it’s just that because of that book.
Wonder by Rachel Vail is my holy grail childhood book. I felt so seen when I read it! I think she does such a great job of really touching on those junior high cliques and how hard it can be to fit in. I still remember specific lines from that book!!
I'm also apparently older than you and know none of these books. The one I remember most is "The Egypt Game" by Zilpha Snyder, still have it somewhere. I think it was published in the 70s and my mum picked it up 10 years later at a supermarkt checkout. Other kinds wanted the candy, I wanted the books.
I was a VORACIOUS reader as a child, and I also read the books I owned over and over again (which I learned as an adult is weird?). In common with you I had the Babysitter's Club (I also read alllll the Babysitter's Little Sister books about Karen, Kristy's younger stepsister!), and Face on a Milk Carton.
I was also really into all the American Girl books, and the Dear America diaries (ribbon bookmarks...say less!).
I also loved Things not Seen by Andrew Clements - if you haven't read that one it's so good!
Also vivid memories of my third grade teacher reading aloud the Junie B. Jones series to us.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane!
I had totally forgotten about The Face On the Milk Carton. Definitely remember my obsession with that one
For me, it was Matilda. A girl who loved books? Her family was awful? She had a mean principal? Totally the same as my life!
The face on the milk carton feels like a fever dream at this point, the way I was SO invested in it
Oh, my goodness, so much I agree with here! You've Got Mail- agreed on all counts. One of the best rom-coms of all time.
I was obsessed with The Baby-Sitters Club and Sweet Valley Twins. My whole room was Baby-Sitters Club stuff at some point.
I actually haven't read Baby Alicia is Dying but I HAVE read several other Lurlene McDaniel books, the vast majority of which are about dying teenagers. I remember thinking after I read The Fault in Our Stars that it was like John Green took a Lurlene McDaniel plot and rewrote it so that it was actually good.
The Face on the Milk Carton and its sequels! Oh, man. Looking back, Janie's long-lost siblings were AWFUL to her. I know the situation was hard for them, too, but they acted like it was her fault that she was kidnapped at age three!
I love Lois Lowry- A Summer to Die is a much better dying teenager book than anything by Lurlene McDaniel. I read The Giver when I was ten and it absolutely blew my mind.
I loved Here's to You, Rachel Robinson, too. I always liked reading books where the protagonist was a smart girl. I remember the storyline in that book about her asshole brother who kept saying deliberately cruel things to everyone and her friends not thinking he was that bad.
Baby Alicia is Dying is terrifying me. Love this post of such great books!
The Baby Sitters Club was my entire personality for years. My proudest parenting moment happened last week when my five-year-old packed all her BSC books for our trip to Hawaii and ZERO toys.
Also, did you read the Unicorn Club series. That was my favorite sweet valley spinoff and I think about it whenever I wear purple.
The Baby Sitter's Club books got me through 6th grade. We were still bussing kids across town in Las Vegas in the late 80s, and it was the first time in my life that my mother didn't take me to school. There were other things happening in my life at the time, and I was so lost and unhappy. I would read TBC books under my desk all day through school, I'd read them over and over. I too loved one of the bigger books, but they were a life saver. Christopher Pike wrote a book called Remember When in the early 90s that has stuck with me my whole life. There's a sad boy with diabetes and a murdered girlfriend and a vaguely single white female vibe by a mystery sister, but the thing that I think about on the regular is the one character tries to kill the sad boy by injecting an air bubble into his veins. I think about this every time I see a syringe.
I think about that Christopher Pike book allll the time! It forged my obsession with books narrated by dead girls.
I read like a fiend when I was young, everything and anything (found a paperback copy around the house of Mario Puzo's The Godfather when I was around 10, maybe, and my mother promptly took it away from me and threw it in the trash) -- but the book I remember so clearly, as if I was carrying it around just yesterday -- was Harriet the Spy. My dad even went into NYC (we lived in NJ then) and bought me a very nice coat that looked exactly like Harriet's.
I am told that I learned to read much earlier than anyone expected, and started with Dr. Suess books, which my Auntie Ann, an educator herself, gave me. Before I reached ten, I had made it my mission to read every book in the Bobbsey Twins series, although I think there were times I found Freddy and Flossie (the younger pair of twins, as annoying as Bert and Nan, the older pair, did.
From there it was on to Nancy Drew, and I realized I loved mysteries. The Hardy Boys were a pass, though, until they arrived on my TV screen in 1977 (and it's telling that I forgot that the TV series, which ran for 46 episodes, also involved Nancy Drew). Of Shirley Jones' children, David and Shaun Cassidy, I much preferred David (after watching every episode of The Partridge Family), and seeing Shaun on covers of Tiger Beat magazine week after week turned me off, but Parker Stevenson as the older Hardy Boy? With his blue eyes and feathered hair—I even had a poster of Farrah Fawcett in my bedroom because I LOVED feathered hair—kept me tuning in.
I don't remember any teachers reading to me at either Tappan Grammar (grades 1 and 2) or at Saint Ann's Parochial (grades 3 through 6), but I was a a big public library kid by then and read non-stop. The first book I remember wanting to read over and over at the Carnegie library in Nyack was The Persian Boy by Mary Renault. Combine ancient history with homosexuality—whenever any adult in my family asked what it was about, I simply said it was about Alexander the Great, but it was told from the perspective of a young male Persian eunuch who becomes infatuated with Alexander and, luckily for him, gets some attention from Alexander when his regular boyfriend, Hephaestion, was otherwise busy. Did I compare myself to two Macedonian warriors or to a Persian eunuch? I did not, but oh, it was a relief to see my nascent sexuality on the page!
When I was sent to a private school in grade 7, my love for books really took off. I learned to read in French and Latin, too, but it was there that I was introduced to Dickens, Melville, and, in the school's library, Frank Herbert. I loved reading Dune—it indirectly sparked a lifelong interest in Arabic art.
I’m much older than you, so I don’t know any of these books. I did love Judy Blume’s Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret and the boy-puberty one (I think he wears a raincoat a lot to hide the spontaneous erections?).
My fourth grade teacher read aloud to us and one of the books was called Cowslip. It was about a little enslaved girl. I’m positive it was wrong on so many levels, but it sparked my nine year old imagination like crazy.
Another book that I adored was Island of the Blue Dolphins. So problematic. Turns out, the 70s weren’t great either.
Omg the outsiders is SUCH a formative book from middle school for me, and then when I was interning in my first teaching role it was the book I was assigned to do with the students and it was like the universe telling me teaching was my calling!!!