adolescent books

My first book was [B]The Pokey Little Puppy[/B]. I think my mom still has it, actually...

Then, I remember I got [B]Alexander and Horrible, Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day[/B] at the book fair in fourth grade. What a great book.

Most of the other books I checked out in grade school were by [B]Lee J. Ames[/B], the [B]Draw 50 [/B] series. I went through one or two a week for almost a year. [B]Draw 50 Planes, Trains and Automobiles[/B], [B]Draw 50 Dinosaurs[/B]... they just never got old.

[QUOTE=ireLocus]My first book was [B]The Pokey Little Puppy[/B]. I think my mom still has it, actually...

Then, I remember I got [B]Alexander and Horrible, Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day[/B] at the book fair in fourth grade. What a great book.

Most of the other books I checked out in grade school were by [B]Lee J. Ames[/B], the [B]Draw 50 [/B] series. I went through one or two a week for almost a year. [B]Draw 50 Planes, Trains and Automobiles[/B], [B]Draw 50 Dinosaurs[/B]... they just never got old.[/QUOTE]
[I]The Pokey Little Puppy [/I] was my favorite when I was little -- I gave it to my kids.

As for adolescent books -- A Wrinkle in Time was one of my favorites, Judy Blume books - most of them are pre-adolescent books, I guess, but I liked them.

There was also a series of Alfred Hitchcock short stories that I started reading in 5th grade. I got bored with the Nancy Drew crap because the first chapters were all basically the same thing and then I found those awesome Hitchcock stories. I was 10 and some of the stories were so creepy that I still remember them.

I never picked up a single Nancy Drew. They didn't interest me. But I used ot get so tired of books about a beautiful girl. Like the Sweet Valley High books for example. Each book started out with a brief introduction to the girls' lives and about how great they had it, how beautiful and blonde they were. I just got sick of it. I couldn't relate to that! Then I found I know why the Caged Bird Sings and it blew open my brain, it was maybe too much of a leap for me, I don't know. Just to go from reading about fluff, about blonde rich girls and their classroom popularity politics, to something that gave me a different perspective entirely. I guess some girls like the Hillary Duff and the Olsen Twins books, and The cosmetic fluff stories about popularity and the mall and makeup and parties, but I really think most of that should be banned from children's literature. I'm willing to bet some of it is damaging, the way it's so shallow.

I used to read some Nancy Drew but never read Babysitter's Club. I read all the time - books that I now consider so dumb I don't want to mention them. I read my first book when I was 4 - something about apples. My favorites were Amelia Bedelia, Curious George and Madeleine.

Sometimes I still read adolescent lit. - I love CS Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia. And also The Series of Unfortunate Events.

[QUOTE=Maddetchke Malorkus]I never picked up a single Nancy Drew. They didn't interest me. But I used ot get so tired of books about a beautiful girl. Like the Sweet Valley High books for example. Each book started out with a brief introduction to the girls' lives and about how great they had it, how beautiful and blonde they were. I just got sick of it. I couldn't relate to that! Then I found I know why the Caged Bird Sings and it blew open my brain, it was maybe too much of a leap for me, I don't know. Just to go from reading about fluff, about blonde rich girls and their classroom popularity politics, to something that gave me a different perspective entirely. I guess some girls like the Hillary Duff and the Olsen Twins books, and The cosmetic fluff stories about popularity and the mall and makeup and parties, but I really think most of that should be banned from children's literature. I'm willing to bet some of it is damaging, the way it's so shallow.[/QUOTE]
Yeah -- they were really boring. I checked one out in 2nd grade -- I remember it because my parents for some reason got mad that I had checked it out. I guess they thought I couldn't read it, but they were really boring - after the second one -- I didn't like hearing what her father did for a living or the same description of the color of her hair over and over again.

all the e. nesbitt books - the phoenix and the carpet, the five children and it, the would-begoods, the railway children

all the edward eager books - half magic, the time garden, i can't think of all the other titles, but he was great
madeleine l'engle! all of them!
the chronicles of narnia - c.s. lewis
(sensing a theme here?)
jrr tolkien books

and then all the horse books by margerite henry

oh yeah and don't forget weetzie bat! Francesca Lia Block is good .

See my avatar... yeah, Lee Ames taught me to draw. That's a self portrait I did in college. You should see it full size.

I guess those books don't really count as reading, though, since there was next to nothing as far as actual text goes.

Oh well.

If we're talking 12-15 years old, then I remember reading The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole by Sue Townsend and finding it hilarious.

It was one of the first books where I felt that I was reading something that was slightly "adult", but could recognise and relate to the characters.

Before that it was (the fabulous) Roald Dahl, Spike Milligan, Edward Lear - anything with delicious manglings of the English language.

Incidentally - IreLocus: What's the deal with your sig? It's freaking me out in a kind of "House Of Leaves" way.

What's it from?

[QUOTE=dzudzu]I used to read some Nancy Drew but never read Babysitter's Club. I read all the time - books that I now consider so dumb I don't want to mention them. I read my first book when I was 4 - something about apples. My favorites were Amelia Bedelia, Curious George and [B]Madeleine.[/B]

Sometimes I still read adolescent lit. - I love CS Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia. And also The Series of Unfortunate Events.[/QUOTE]

Wasn't it Madeline?

JRR Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings' and 'The Silmarillion'
The complete Sherlock Holmes
Sci fi short stories and classics like Asimov

Also 'The Godfather' (Mario Puzo) at age 14.

Not sure any of this is teenage litterature per se.

Oh Sara Faye I'm glad you said that! I read all of the Little House Books, and I read a lot of the Pleasant Company/American Girls series too. But when I was into them, there was only Samantha, Kirsten, and Molly. Now they have more characters, I can't even keep track. There's a Mexican girl from the 1800s, a girl in The Depression era, a Native American girl, s Civil War girl. Those were great, I ended up learning a lot of history from those. There's a series out now for girls called Dear America and it's kind of like that, I've just skimmed through them and I always recommend them to the girls who have read all the American Girls books.

I of course liked The Secret Garden and A Little Princess, and Harriet The Spy, and Mathilda.

Did anyone else read the Superfudge books, The Wayside School books, or the Ramona Quimby books?

haven't read too much as a young boy but [I]'The Little Prince' [/I] is still one of my favorite book to date.

My grandma sent me the Clan of the Cave Bear when I was about 14 and I loved it, even though there was sex stuff in it. I don't think my parents knew...and then I got all the rest, the Mammoth Hunters, The Valley of Horses, The Plains of Passage...I think there's another book in the series by now, I should go read it, oh Ayla and Jondalar...

I remember I tried to read the Clan of the Cavebear, probably around age 14, and I just couldn't get into it.

[QUOTE=sara faye]I'm glad YOU said THAT... how could I forget [B]Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing[/B]? or [B]Otherwise Known As Sheila The Great[/B]? I remember my mom wouldn't let me read [B]Then Again, Maybe I Won't [/B] because it was "dirty." I knew she had an old copy in the basement, so I would sneak down and read it when she wasn't home. My favorite Ramona Quimby book was [B]Ramona the Pest.[/B][/QUOTE]
I read that. All Judy Blume's books talked about masturbation. I found it gratuitous.

I remember reading some Judy Blume books. [I]Fudge [/I] and [I]Superfudge [/I] as Madde mentioned. Also [I]Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing[/I] as Sara mentioned.

[QUOTE=Maddetchke Malorkus]Wasn't it Madeline?[/QUOTE]

oh - yeah, oops.

[QUOTE=dzudzu]oh - yeah, oops.[/QUOTE]

HUGE difference!

I read all the Judy Blume books. All at least five times each. I even wrote to her pleading her to write more.

I also read the Babysitters Club - I read about a third of them, which is pretty impressive considering there were over a hundred.

[QUOTE=Maddetchke Malorkus]HUGE difference! :)[/QUOTE]

I am so ashamed - I even HAVE those books.

I really enjoy Lloyd Alexander - actually didn't read him as a child only recently (I worked in the kids section of a used book store so I got into reading kids books) anyway [B]The Black Cauldren[/B], [B]The Book of Three[/B] and [B]The High King[/B] I totally enjoyed I also highly enjoyed [B]The Town Cats and Other Tales[/B] very cute cat stories which I love.
another auther that comes to mind is C.S. Lewis for [B]The Chronicles of Narnia[/B] Iquite enjoyed all seven, but [B]The Lion the Witch and The Wardrobe[/B] is of course the best known of these.

did anyone read hank the cowdog? anyone?

i know you guys read shel silverstein.

and choose your own adventure

I had a whole group of kids and we would all swap and trade those books to get different stories

I hated how they ended so abruptly. One minute you're walking along the next you're being eaten by ants. It chilled my blood.

I loved ghost stories, haunted houses stuff like that. Nothing I could name, but there were always collections.

I also had "Horse Stories for girls" which someone gave me and I read it cause I used to read everything, but it offended me that they just assumed that because I was a girl that I would want something so cheesy.

I never understood why girls liked horses.

I liked Ghost Stories too. I'm still afraid of the dark. I remember my Nana getting me an anthology out of the library when I was about eight, one of the stories centred around a serial killer who targeted gay prostitutes.

thats some heavy reading for eight...

hey do you remember those jokes that were like ghost stories...

something about bloody bones and dirty diapers

a lot of them started off with a guy or three guys going to a hotel to spend the night and they have to stay in the only room thats left and then something happens, I don't remember, nevermind

Something about Jelly Babies in the toilet...I don't remember either but it sounds strangely familiar.

Wow, great idea.
now let's see;
'How to Eat Fried Worms' - amusing, 'out-tricking' the bully kind of thing
'Girl With the Silver Eyes' - you can always find people like you, if your willing to look
'Shoebag' - the 'children's' Kaufka, a roach, wakes up to find himself a boy.
'I Wanna Go Home' - being anti-social isn't only okay, it's freaking funny!
'The Whipping Boy' - A Prince and a Pauper story, changed how i ate potatoes
'The Giver' - you'll never look at colors or memory the same way again.
'Maniac Magee' - a neighborhood, legend in his own time
'The Witch of Blackbird Pond' - the 'children's' Hawthorne.
'Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh' - does anyone not know this book? dark and lovely.
'Charlotte's Web'- didto above, nix on the dark.
'Black Beauty' - " "
'Tuck Everlasting' - you sure you wanna live forever?
'Julie of the Wolves' - a girl lives with and 'raises' wolves who have taken her in.
'From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler' - you too, can live in a museum.
'The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm' - Zimbabwe in the year 2194
'Island of the Blue Dolphins' - left behind, a girl learns to survive on her own (kindda like hatchet but better)
any and all Madeleine L'Engle, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis or Roald Dahl books.
any of those i read from 3rd to 6th grade, this list is in no particular order.

I'm sure there are more in my mind, but those are the ones I think of first.
as far as children-children's books i always did like 'Sylvester and the Magic Pebble'

[QUOTE=mr_hash]I really enjoy Lloyd Alexander - actually didn't read him as a child only recently (I worked in the kids section of a used book store so I got into reading kids books) anyway [B]The Black Cauldren[/B], [B]The Book of Three[/B] and [B]The High King[/B] [/QUOTE]

I totally forgot about those. YES, they are most awsome!