Saturday, February 20, 2010

Books I've loved, lost and bought back again

I am an avid book reader, collector and worth noting, a total nostalgia junkie. In other words, I collect children and teen books. I love re-reading stuff from my childhood. I feel no shame in it, although the overflowing boxes of books in my closet are starting to worry me. My grandmother saved most of her books, and I remember running downstairs to her basement to flop on the couch and dig into her first edition Nancy Drew's. I hope someday to pass the books I've loved onto my kids or grandkids or anyone else I can pawn them off on. In the meantime, I'll keep re-reading and collecting and enjoying.

There's the classics: Judy Blume, Roald Dahl, Harriet the Spy, Little House etc. But my guiltiest pleasure is 80's ya series. Oh my God, I LOVED a series that I could collect and set up on my bookshelf, trying to fill in the numbers I was missing. Here's a sampling:

The Baby-Sitters Club

Oh sweet BSC, you were a time of innocence before I jumped into Steven King and V.C. Andrews. I absolutely still love this series about a group of baby-sitters and their adventures. There was nothing too dramatic about the BSC. Sometimes they would fight, like if Mary Anne got a makeover, or Stacey decided she was mature for the club, or if Claudia would eat the last twinky (kidding). But that's kind of why they remain a favorite. The relationships the girls had with each other was so realistic and well, for lack of a better word, normal. Completely relate-able. And worth it just for the epic outfit descriptions.
(Boy Crazy Stacey and Mallory and the Trouble with Twins were my two favorites: hello, the beach and makeovers?)

Sweet Valley High

SVH was awesome for the opposite reason. Total unbelievable drama! (as seen in the above image, yum frozen pancakes.) This series was set in the fictional town of Sweet Valley, with a cast of white bred, beautiful teens headed by the perfect size 6 Wakefield twins. It's a soap opera and I loved it. Famously ghostwritten by a bazillion writers, it made Francine Pascal rich, and robbed me of my allowance on many occasions. Basically Sweet Valley High and The Baby-Sitters Club made teen publishing what it is today.

Freshman Dorm

Sorry for the small images. But if you can lean in real close to your screen, you'll see my favorite part of the Freshman Dorm series: collage covers! I always loved how it was a bunch of photos, with weird 90's junk sitting on top of it (erasers that spelled out hot, nail polish, weird key chains, mini pizzas). Freshman Dorm encouraged my dreams of college while I was still in middle school. Surprisingly realistic, well at least in the beginning, the teens of Freshman Dorm *gasp* actually go to classes, and work on their homework in between falling in love, becoming anorexic, getting addicted to drugs, almost getting married etc. I avidly re-read this series now, in hopes that it will pump me up, a contrast to how boring college actually is.

Cheerleaders

This tiny photo was extremely difficult to locate, which is making me realize this series might have been harder to find in the 80's than I thought. I still own way too many of these books. I just loved this series because I wanted to be a cheerleader when I was a little girl, but really...the plots are either totally ridiculous or completely boring. You don't really feel anything for *any* of the characters because they're mostly so shallow and self centered, and not in a fun Jessica Wakefield or Lila Fowler kind of way either. Oh well, I still loved it as a kid. Famous ya authors got their start on this series, including Caroline B. Cooney and Christopher Pike!

Sunset Island

Sunset Island....oh how I still love thee. This series follow three girls who become au-pairs on a beautiful island during two (very long) summers. Cherie Bennett is the master of describing outfits, most of them horrendous (think day glo), and child care is mostly put on the back burner, with the focus on the girls love lives with various hot dudes on the island. My favorite part is the local band, Flirting with Danger (!!!). Seriously, that name is so ridiculous, you have to love it.

Sleepover Friends

These were, and still, are kind of baby-ish, but c'mon, it's called The Sleepover Friends! Cute! Really, it's like The Baby-sitters Club lite. Pretty wholesome, nothing too intense happens. The only real reason to read these books are for the intense junk food sessions they go on. Serious food porn. Pizza, fudge, Dr. Pepper, bbq chips, cookies, leftover chinese food...if it's in the fridge, these girls will eat it.

Other series I loved (and some I still collect) include: Canby Hall, The Fabulous Five, Pen Pals, Sunfire, Satin Slippers, Couples, Sweet Dreams, Merivale Mall, Seniors, Roommates, Girl Talk, geesh.

Now I've just gotta keep my fingers crossed that the new Sweet Valley and BSC books that are planned, aren't totally terrible.

6 comments:

SherryMauro said...

Never read Sweet Valley High books. But was a BIG fan of V.C. Andrews!

Sadako said...

The beach and makeovers--love those. My fave was always MA's Makeover because an awesome makeover story is always great, and have a soft spot for MA.

Jen said...

Sadako- Do you know I've never read Mary Anne's Makeover? It was one of the later books, and I've just begun to try and find a lot of the ones I've missed.

I actually picked it up at Goodwill last week, and it's on my list to read!

Sadako said...

Oh, you should definitely read it soon! It's great fun because it's a bitchy BSC gal book, plus there's shopping at the "hip" store at the mall, Steven E, and MA looking hot and turning heads! It was such escapist fiction for me as a kid. (And I think it's the reason why I thought I could pull off an uber short Natalie Imbruglia in Torn type hairdo for so many years.)

Anyway, can't wait to read about if you decide to blog about it.

Ms. Canadian Studies said...

I read all the BSC books probably up until the high 60s or so (by the time those were coming out I think I was in high school so I had to hide them inside of, like, Paul Auster novels or something). I also read SVH, but I def preferred the BSC to them for the same reasons you stated (relatability!). And I totally read Sleepover Friends--I even owned "Kate's Camp-Out"--and didn't think I remembered anything about them, until you mentioned the food (BBQ chips, totally!)... I also read the Pen Pals series and even got a couple of pen pals by filling out the little form in the back and sending it in to some magical pen pal matching center...

Anyway, it's probably weird for me to be commenting on this like a month after you wrote it, but I just discovered your blog and I think it's rad.

Jen said...

Secret,

I love that you commented, even after a month! Fellow YA loving book ladies gotta stick together.