Can I start a thread about nostalgic Young Adult/Children's books we used to read in the 80s/90s?

They, along with R.A. Salvatore's amazing collection are as good today as they were over 20 years ago.

Ah, I used to love the likes of Cleric Quintet and the Spellsinger books. Never revisited as an adult, though.
Also, in a similar vein, I loved the Weis and Hickman Dragonlance books.

don'tquotemeondailymail Could it have been a series by Hunter Davies? 2 characters called Sam and Ella? If so I remember those.

Loving this thread. I was a huge Judy Blume fan. Also loved the Sweet Dreams books and The Outsiders which we did for GCSE. So many great titles mentioned here.

I regret getting rid of my Sue Barton books, Seeline - still remember them so clearly. Sue, Kit and Connie getting locked out of the nurses home and Sue climbing in through a window and hiding under a supervisor’s bed, then making the rocking chair move to frighten her into leaving the room; Sue’s appendicitis; Sue and Bill being reprimanded for having tea together; Sue being told off for having her petticoat showing when really it was a frilly curtain behind her; Dr Bill operating on Tabitha on the kitchen table; Sue’s stint on the maternity ward and the couple who weren’t interested in their baby till Sue put a pretty dress on it...I could go on forever!

FlatterNow - you may be thinking of two books by Joan G Robinson, When Marnie was There, which is a ghost story, and Charley, which is about a girl who runs away and lives rough because she thinks no one wants her.

Another Paula Danziger, Judy Blume snd SVH fan!

Does anyone remember a book series in the 90s, set in a London sixth form? I think there were about 5 or 6 main characters, male and female. They were really corny, trying to be edgy and gritty but not quite getting there, but I still had to buy and read every one in the series. Can’t think what it was called though

Does anyone else remember the Australian Silver Brumby books? I loved those.

BroomstickOfLove
Me and my sister used to argue ovrr who owned our copy. Think it is in the attic now will have to look it out.
Wasn't a fan of the movie though.

Ooh yes I loved the chalet school books, but looking back they were awful - really classist!
I liked Trebizon but it was an odd school.
Loved Biggles.
Remember flowers in the attic - really creepy IIRC.
People in school loved Georgette Heyer but I never read any.
Choose your own adventure

Another Flowers in the Attic reader and the remainder of the series too. Hated them all, but had to read them!

Papergirl I've never come across anyone else who read the Sue Barton books (I suspect we are the same age from your username) - I loved them.
I also read books by Ruth M Arthur and A A Townsend. Definitely more YA than the Enid Blyton etc. Some had a ghostly touch to them.

I got Plague 99 (I think it that’s right!) from the library one Saturday morning, read the first chapter and took it straight back to the library that day. It was so disturbing.

Anyone read the Bewitching of Allison Albright? I got it from the school bookclub and read it repeatedly!

Did anyone else read lots of Maeve Binchy and Barbara Erskine as a teenager? My friend used to borrow them from her mum. Looking back it seems odd reading for a teenage girl!

The Belgariad!

I must root them out.

I am 42 and still can't bring myself to think too hard about Brother in the Land because it was so terrifying and upsetting.

ohh i adored Playing Beattie Bow.

and Harriet the Spy, and Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume, and Pardon Me You’re Stepping on My Eyeball. Brother in the Land (which had a drawing of Ant from Grange Hill on the cover), It and everything else Stephen King has written.

does nobody remember Forever by Judy Blume doing the rounds? Ralph and a bath mat - what a lovely image..

Oh wait, no, I think it must have been this one!

Oooh yes. I loved Joan Aiken, she wrote a lot of sinister stories. Does anyone remember one about a girl who found she could do astral projection but then her twin sister stole her body? I think that was Aiken.

I loved Beauty by Robin McKinley who coincidentally was married to Peter Dickinson. He died fairly recently. I've since picked some more of her books and they hold up really well.

Margaret Mahy - the Changeover and the Haunting - both awesome.
Penelope Lively - the Ghost of Thomas Kempe (I loved all the spooky ones, can you tell??)
Alison Uttley, A Traveller in Time
Empty World - a v. terrifying post apocalyptic one.
My favouritist book ever was something called The Awakening Water - another sci fi one by G.R. Kesteven. Loved I am David too. It was the one with this cover which was very evocative.

But also: Flowers In The Attic, Sweet Valley High, The Outsiders (I cried and cried!) and Judy Blume.

I used to live a book about a girl called something like Marni or Charley who ran away from home and lived in the field behind her house. I wish I could remember what it was called - I read it time and time again.

Love this thread! I wasn't horsey but I loved "I Wrote a Pony Book" by Joanna Cannan, the mother of the Pullein-Thompson sisters (which is quite meta, in retrospect).

The Kevin and Sadie series and the Maggie series by Joan Lingard.
The Sweet Dreams books.
Chalet School (I have since collected quite a few which I re-read).
Sue Barton nurse books.
Break in the Sun by Bernard Ashley.
New Patches For Old by Christobel Mattingley

Muddling I remember my brother being a big Redwall fan and helping him write a letter to Brian Jacques. He was so excited when he got a reply, there were some Redwall recipes sent to him too which my mum has in her recipe folder still.

This thread is making me realise her hoarding tendencies.

Also Tamora Pierce. I gave the first Alanna book to DD to read last year, and she's read every single Tamora Pierce book at least twice since then.

Oh, I loved the Tillerman books by Cynthia Voigt too! And Lois Duncan, and the Anastasia books. Fire and Hemlock is one of my favourite books.

There's a really good book called Shelf Discovery by Lizzie Skurnick, which is a collection of her blog posts about YA books of the 70s and 80s. Brought back lots of memories!

School stories - Malory Towers/St Clare's/Trebizon/Naughtiest girl (still have them all)
Judy Blume, Nancy Drew and Hardy boys, Sweet Valley, Paula Danziger
Redwall/Mossflower & Mattimeo
Gymnast Gilly
Christopher Pike. Point Fear?
Flowers in the attic
Later on babysitters club even though i was a bit old. My friend's sister had them.
Can't believe how much I read as a child!

I loved the Ramona books by Beverly Cleary.

Also, Paula Danziger. She visited our local library and did a talk to my class. It was the highlight of our school social diary . I just googled her and can't believe she died years ago . Lovely, charismatic, funny woman.

Judy Blume was BIG in my junior school years. She was the Queen.

Absolutely loved Sweet Valley High, too. The descriptions of their outfits ('Jessica put on her favourite leather pants, an olive green turtle neck and her new frosted peach lipstick') seemed so grown up and exotic to a 10 yr old me .

I went through a dodgy stage in my early teens of loving Jackie and Joan Collins, and the Flowers in the Attic series .