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.

Thanks bookmum08 My version was Where it Stops Nobody Knows.

www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/558587160024593364/

I used to read LOADS of these!

I’ve read nearly all of these. I loved The Face on the milk carton and all the Lous Duncan ones.

Did anyone else have ‘remember me?’ By Christopher Pike? About Shari and how she was murdered? Such a twist!

Re Katherine Applegate and the Zoey books, she also wrote a series called Making Waves about lifeguards, maybe? They all shared a house together. I still have all of my Katherine Applegate books- I must dig them out!

I loved the SVH books particularly the special editions which I'd read over and over. Just googled the covers for a Proustian rush . God, I loved those books... certainly a world away from 1980s in the Midlands. I'd cringe if I read them now, I bet.

The Face on the Milk Carton was made into a TV movie. It’s been on channel five a few times.

What a brilliant thread! So many favourites mentioned here, particularly Cynthia Voigt, Antonia Forest, Paula Danziger, Judy Blume and Lynne Reid Banks.

Thank you @LadyPeterWimsey for mentioning My Darling Villain, I've been desparately trying to remember what that book was called!

Others that I loved as a teenager are Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson, Annie on my Mind by Nancy Gordon (which made me feel impossibly sophisticated), Night Kites by M E Kerr and Over the Moon by Elissa Haden Guest. My local library obviously had quite a forward thinking teenage section!

Yes @UnicornPug I mentioned Remember Me up thread. Loved it! There were a couple of sequels but apparently they weren't very good.

I bought my darling villain quite recently. It has NOT stood up to the rest of time well!

Ohhhh I loved that one with the girl who had to embroider her school clothes to go out on a date!

Does anyone remember one about a girl who’s family had to go into a witness protection scheme, think she had quite a nice life and they had to go and live in a dull little town and her dad had to run a photography shop and it was just miserable. She had to leave her friends & boyfriend and couldn’t understand why she couldn’t say goodbye. Think something happened with them getting found out when she posted a letter or something.

That was Lois Duncan too - think it was called Don't Look Behind You or something like that.

I found a full version of Locked in Time online so am all caught up now!

bigearringsbigsmile

Why has My Darling Villain not stood the test of time?

The way they talk about class, the stereotypical portrayal of ' working classes' it just feels very of its time.

I’ve been trying to remember the name of a book I loved without any success and I’m sure someone on here will know.

It’s set in the UK and it’s a thriller about a girl whose long lost sister turns up one day, and moves in but she suspects it’s not really her and can’t get her parents to listen. I think it might even have been made into a TV series and I think the sister may have been called Viv. I thought it was called something like A Cuckoo in the Nest but google isn’t helping.

Niche fact but I seem to remember the illustration of the ‘sister’ on the front looking like Joan Baker from the Armada edition of A Problem at the Chalet School!

I think you might mean 'The Cuckoo Sister' by Vivien Alcock (also made into a BBC TV series). The resident sister was called Kate and the long lost sister's name at birth was Emma, but the girl who turned up was called Rosie.

She was indeed portrayed as very 'Joan Baker' because she came from a 'slummy' area of London, whereas Kate's family were upper middle class and lived in a naice house in a naice area.

Yes! Thank you, it was driving me mad. Weird what facts the brain hangs on to, isn’t it?

Another Vivien Alcock book I loved was 'The Sylvia Game' about a girl, Emily, who bore a startling resemblance to a girl called Sylvia in a Renoir painting that had gone missing. Emily's father was an impoverished artist and the plot revolved around the possibility that he'd forged a copy of the Renoir painting so the missing one could be 'found' and sold.

More than anything this thread has reminded me how much I love reading. I still do but don’t prioritise it as much as I should.

Some brilliant memories here...my absolute fave teen read was Walk through Cold Fire...Cin Forshay Lunford I think was the author. Read it over and over again. All the Sweet Valleys and Judy Blooms. My aunt introduced me to Jackie Collins about age 12 though so they were all a bit tame after reading Lovers and Gamblers!!

There was a Vivien Alcock I LOVED called A Kind Of Thief - anyone read it? I can barely even remember the plot! The Dad went to prison?

so glad to see some favourites mentioned here.

"we were like brothers - I was your best friend".
"like a friend once said to me, that was then, this is now"

"Second Star to the Right - and straight on until morning".

Some beautiful work there.

I haven't read some of the Vivien Alcock books mentioned.

Also I'm not sure if I missed it - has anyone read "That Crazy April" by Lila Perl?

I loved the sisters books by marilyn kaye
Phoebe who was annoyed her mates were getting g into boys and starting their periods
Daphne who was bossed about by her two older sisters but was a bookworm and eventually she found her way
Cassie who loved labels, boys and money who had a rich friend who stole from shops
Lydia who was a rebel and leader who started a high school newspaper.

Paula Danziger too, the cat ate my gym suit and there's a bat in bunk 5 were my favourites.

The sisters series has arrived today

@EmmaGrundyForPM The Swish of the Curtain.

I LOVED New Patches for Old. I seem to remember it as beautifully written.