Inspired by the thread on horsey fiction: a thread on teenage fiction from the 70s and 80s

[Bookridden]

I loved the nostalgia of reading the pony books thread. I graduated onto teen reads at about 13/14, and wondered if anyone remembers these:
Sweet Dreams romances (American, mass produced, total hokum but strangely addictive)
The British version of Sweet Dreams, which I think was called Heartlines. The setting was a bit less glamorous but the basic idea was the same.
A trilogy by Francine Pascal about a selfish, bitchy girl called Caitlin (think her bf was called Jed)
Sweet Valley High - obviously.
And then there were individual titles that stood out :
A Fortunate Few by Tim Kennemore
Second Star to the Right by Deborah Hautzig
The best little girl in the world by Steven Levenkron
The Cool Boffin by Pete Johnson

So many more. Great times for teenage readers.

@MirandaWest I love your user name! I always wanted to.be Lawrie, not Nicola.

At my all-girls school in the early 80s The Thorn Birds, Flowers in the Attic and Lace all did the rounds. I also remember loving A Summer to Die and Up A Road Slowly. Forever by Judy Blume was great.

There was one I read by Francine Pascal before she wrote the SVH ones. Called Hanging out with Cici

@Bookridden - loved the Caitlin trilogy!

When I was a little younger (10/11?) I loved the 'Anastasia Krupnik' books by Lois Lowry.

My absolute favourite Paula Danziger book was 'Can you sue your parents for malpractice?' And all the Judy Blume books were great, but I had a particular soft spot for 'Just as long as we're together'.

I forgot about Paula Danziger. And Caroline B Cooney? I think that was her. Horror and romance stories.

Amyspickledlime yes it was definitely Waiting For The Sky To Fall. The boyfriend was called Richard.
So many of these books mentioned I loved. I read endlessly as a teen.
Easy Connections and Easy Freedom by Liz Berry too.

This is the first time I've known anyone to know either the Sadlers Wells books with Veronica or the Silver Brumby series- I loved both of those. What about the Alfred Hitchcock mystery series, The Three Investigators? I absolutely LOVED those, with the Myna bird that wasn't a parrot and 222b etc.

MirandaWest I loved Hanging out with Cici. Such an awesome premise.
I also loved the Sadlers Wells books and the Making Out series.

Whenever these threads come up I always ask if anyone remembers this book and nobody ever does! There's a girl, late teens, lives in London, bit of a loner, discovers secret Undeground trains that take her to stations she has never heard of like Dome. She meets a girl who I think is called Mee. Turns out she is having a breakdown, the stations are perfectly normal (Dome is St Pauls) and Mee is either herself or her childhood imaginary friend. It was in the YA section of our library in the 80s along with books by Jan Mark, Jean Ure etc. If you Google it you just find me looking for it on other web sites 😀

This thread references so many books that I remember.

I’d like to add John Christopher, in particular ‘The Prince in Waiting’ trilogy.

I loved Robert Westall’s Future Track 5. Reading it now, it has some slightly dodgy aspects with regard to race, but as a dystopian novel it’s a chilling read - the Ests (the establishment) are in charge, and there’s a chemically sterilised underclass, the Unems (the unemployed). It’s deeply disturbing.

Peter Davidson’s ‘The Changes’ was good, but I thought ‘The Seventh Raven’ was better - although as a child I didn’t get the side-swipes at the Hampstead lifestyle.

But Daddy-Long-Legs... reading it now, it simply seems like a manual on grooming. It’s genuinely shocking.

I don't recall YA as being a think when I was younger. As in it being marked as such in a library or shop.

Mind you I don't overly recall books from my older teenage years either! Except 'smutty' ones that did the rounds in school (especially the sexual fantasies one - fictional short stories it was a real eye opener!).

As a younger teen and slightly younger I was obsessed with All Creatures Great and Small.

Cat Ate my Gym Suit was my first Paula Danzinger book. Thought it was amazing!!

I became a teenager in 1973 and teen literature was a wasteland. Overnight from Enid Blyton, Noel Streatfield, CS Lewis, Nancy Drew, etc, I struggled with The Crystal Cave, Jane Eyre, Dickens beyond A Christmas Carol and launched into Catherine Cookson and Jean Plaidy before finding Malcolm Saville, Thomas Hardy and Evelyn Waugh with a bit of of Delderfield thrown in - oh and H E Bates.

My children had so much to chose from.

I was a teenager in the 80s when teen fiction was really gaining ground as a genre.

I'd forgotten Break in the Sun!

Loved the Sadlers Wells series, and the Malcolm Saville books. Did anyone else read the Monica Edwards books about Tamsin and Rissa? - generally pony books but teen romance in there as well as they grew up.

My favourites were the Pennington books by K.M. Peyton - they began as pony books with a female protagonist (Ruth?) who was a pony-mad teen, then she meets a broodingly magnetic teenager called Patrick who is all sorts of trouble but plays the piano like a god

If you make a (free) account on openlibrary.org there’s quite a few 80s teenage books on there to read online. Lots of Francine Pascal, Jean Ure etc. Also some Ruth M Arthur books. You’ll get nothing else done today 😁

I must look those up, ceefax. Love open library!

Ooh Ceefax I would love to re-read some Ruth M Arthur! You have made my day 😁

AndNone I think you're looking for Neil Boyd's books - Bless Me, Father and a couple of others. IIRC,they were televised with Arthur Lowe as the older priest, Father Duddleswell. Nice books. Did you ever read Don Camillo? I liked those as a younger teen.

The parish was definitely St Jude's. Coincidentally, we lived round the corner from a RL St Jude's for a couple of years. That was in Wales and they used to come carol-singing at Christmas - it was lovely.

Meg Mysteries, Trixie Belden, A book called 'Two are better than one'

I, too, loved New Patches for Old - only re-found the title of it recently, must see if I can trace a copy.

I seem to remember spending my teenage years reading Jeffrey Archer, Jackie Collins, and a host of historical novels - I was fascinated by the Tudor court.

@BooseysMom I loved loved loved Elyne Mitchell books.

Have a look at the Snowy Brumby Photography Group on Facebook, such beautiful pictures!

@Goawayquickly

The book you mention about the girl whose mum disappears sounds like a trilogy by Robert Leeson-

It's My Life
Jan Alone
Coming Home

I've read them a million times!

@GlitchStitch yes! It was ‘It’s my life’ thank you, I loved that book, I’m not sure why I was so sure Phil Redmond wrote it.

A break in the sun has been mentioned, I loved that as well as ‘One more river’ by Lynn Reid Banks.
I also loved ‘The ogre downstairs’ by Diana Wynne Jones but that might have been a pre-teen book.

I loved the Sue Barton books, restocked my collection as an adult, and now DD loves them too.

My favourite Lynn Reid Banks is My Darling Villain.

Back Home by Michelle M was awesome. Treated puberty v sensitively as I remember.

Lois Duncan was awesome. There’s one I particularly liked about a mysterious boarding school where they channel dead artists, musicians, authors etc. 🤣

I love My Darling Villain too, recently bought it online to read again at some point. Also liked Writing on the Wall by LRB.

But Daddy-Long-Legs... reading it now, it simply seems like a manual on grooming. It’s genuinely shocking.

Agree. With an adult perspective, it's creepy AF.