80's-90's young adult fiction....do you remember the greats?

[AnnabelleLee]

I loved all the post apocalyptic stuff best: Brother in the Land, Plague 99, Empty World, Children of the Dust etc...but also all the Point Horror, Christopher Pike as well.

What camp were you in?

And does anyone remember one where a teen girl could astrally project herself? It's annoying me.

[WriteMeBiteMe]

Loved The Oursiders, read all of S.E.Hinton.

Probably more pre-teen but does anyone remember Judy Bloom? I re-read Blubber recently, still a great story

[maraj]

What was the series about the two girls, one was nicknamed Mouse, who met in the cemetery and were convinced (rightfully) that an old woman in town was actually an evil witch?

[EBearhug]

I still reread the Changeover from time to time. Margaret Mahy's written some other good stuff, too. Loved KM Peyton, too, especially the Pennington books.

Never really got into Robert Cormier. As for A Rag, a Bone and a Hank of Hair - couldn't be doing with Nicholas Fisk after reading Grinny. I also disappointed my mother because she thought I should be a lot keener on Joan Lingard. It was possibly the fact that she read Across the Barricades and raved on about it when I got it out of the library that put me off.

Agree John Marsden is great. I think they've made a film of it. There's another he's written about a girl in a young offenders unit, or whatever it's called in Australia (juvie - I've seen H&A.) I believe there's a sequel, but I failed to track it down. (Haven't looked for a couple if years.)

[guaranteedpersonality]

Can anyone remember The Dark Angel Trilogy by Meredith Ann Pierce? God I loved those books.

[LadyMatsi]

Okay I have been desperately searching for this trilogy I read way back when. At least I think it's a trilogy. The most I can remember is that a family was living in the house. And some how the father dies in trophy/gun room. Then one of the daughters starts to dream of this boy. Who I am pretty sure was evil. The boys name was Gabrielle I think.
That's all I really remember. And that's not a lot to go on. I can't remember who wrote it either.

[Nora42]

I loved Brother in the Land. I was more intot he adventure stuff though, Nancy Drew, Secret Seven, I loved Mallory Towers and also worked my way through the Virginia Andrews books.

[whotheduckisalice]

Loving this thread belatedly. I remember particularly loving the stranger with my face, Allison Allbright, the Tricksters by Margaret Mahy, The Outsiders.. Also liked Michelle Magorian books. Read a few too many SVH, Virginia Andrews and Judy Blume too!

[ToniWol]

Remember Me is the one mentioned a few pages back with the girl dying then coming back to let people know who murdered her.

I liked the Point Horrors as well, and a series called Nightmares.

That said - I read most things as a teenager - Sweet Valley, Cheerleaders, Satin Slippers, Silver Skates, Noel Streatfeild books (I know - not 80s/90s, but I still read them) as well as moving onto the adult fiction as well.

[jeee]

John Christopher, Susan Cooper, Robert Westall (I insisted on buying DS Futuretrack 5 the other month.... it was actually better than I remembered), Joan Lingard (DD2 has just enjoyed all the Kevin and Sadie books)

K M Peyton.... I was thoroughly over excited when I discovered that there was a third book about Jonathon Meredith available on kindle, which I'd never heard of. Mind you, we see the really selfish side of him in it. And Pennington was my first real crush.

[YoungBritishPissArtist]

Anyone who read SVH, you may enjoy this

[Cascii]

I recognize alot of these series doesn anyone remember Robin Mckinleys Hero and the Crown, and the Blue Sword. Or the Trillium series? The Changeover, The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Prydain Chronicles, and GiftWish and Catchfire I still reread to this day.

However there is one book i have been trying to find for 15 years, all i can remember of it is that the main protagonist is a girl, its set in I wanna say post-apocolyptic (waaay post) world, where everything is iced and snowed over, and the main hubub of societ worships fire, if i remember she started out in a small village and she was 'selected' and taken to the main civilization where she i think was made into a priestess or something like that... Its been driving me bonkers. I can dimly remember what general area of the alphabet i would get it from on the shelf, somewhere between D and J maybe... the library i was going to had just started building their YA section...

[Ewieindwie1]

The Chrysalids by John Wyndham is superb.

[CatL]

Oh, and what was the dytopian trilogy of books, where there was one where they thought power stations were temples and the women ruled? i may be confusing 2 different books!

[CatL]

Most of these are making me smile! I devoured books as a young teenager:
Point Horror and Point Crime
Sweet Valley High
Everything by Judy Blume and Paula Danziger (my mum was really cross that I leant Forever to a friend, as she didn't want their parents to know she let me read it!)
Christopher Pike
Trebizon books
Red Sky in the Morning by Elizabeth Laird (such as sad book!)
The Nancy Drew Files
Anne Fine - The Granny Project (another sad one!)
Adrian Mole books
Noram Fox Mazer - After the Rain (another sad one, I was such as EMO before they existed!)
Also started on some 'grown up' books: Stephen King, Flowers in the Attic, Agatha Christie

I remember loving one where a girl kept moving into an alternative world, where the characters were all versions of the people in her real life. it's relaly annoying me what it was called? Any ideas? Also, an American one where a girl befriends a homeless Vietnam veteran?

[Babelange]

Hurrah for Mary Stewart - she is 97 and now retired; her books are described as romantic suspense thrillers.

Joyce Stranger wrote 70 books; I read quite a few of them.

Belated to both writers for bridging the gap between childhood and adulthood.

[Babelange]

More 70s than 80s; anyone remember reading any Joyce Stranger (novels about animals - every possible species featured!) or Mary Stewart; she wrote a series about Merlin although her 'forte' was brave gels solving mysteries in exotic places (remember one set in Cyprus), finding love. Both writers were in the adult section - also anything by Neville Shute.

[Planefan]

It was called the juniper game

[YetAnotherHelenMumsnet]

You're most welcome!

[MooncupGoddess]

Anyone remember Bridge to Terabithia? I read it once, aged about 10, and the memory of it still makes me snivel...

[RuinedAndNotorious]

Oh sorry, I see it is now in the books section, was still in Chat in my threads I'm on. As you were! Sorry, MNHQ!

[RuinedAndNotorious]

Ooh, the mention of My Darling My Hamburger has reminded me of another American author, Norma Fox Mazer, used to love her books, the one I remember best was about a girl called Sarabeth Silver because I thought that name was so beautiful!
Also remember a book called Taking Terri Mueller about a girl whose father kidnapped her when she was small and it was about her finding out about this and meeting her mum again for the first time in years.
I hope no-one minds, especially the OP, but I've asked MNHQ to consider moving this into one of the book topics. It's such a great thread, I'd hate to see it disappear.

[YetAnotherHelenMumsnet]

Hello! As requested, this has been moved to Books so that it doesn't all go pffffffffffffffffffft in a month's time. Good to see Jilly get a mention.

[chaosmonkey]

I'd totally forgotten about Patches, but now you mention it, yes MrsBradfield I loved it too!

[EBearhug]

There was a book - may have been short stories - but it was a Puffin Plus I think (maybe another imprint). Anyway, it was about a teenage girl who was going to meet her friends at a shopping mall (on their own! How exciting was that, that they didn't have to get their parents to take them, because they had public transport - I lived on a farm, which may have affected my reading of it.)

There was a whole scene about going to get a Big Mac - and I had no idea what it was on about, because I'd never heard of one before. I don't think it even mentioned eating, so I wasn't even sure if I realised it was on about food. (I was 12 when I first went to MacDonald's, in Bournemouth, so it must have been before then.)

Don't remember anything else about the book, just the shopping mall and the mysterious Big Mac, whatever that was.


I had read about Oreos, Twinkies and Hershey Kisses in books. God, were they ever a disappointment when I came to eat them!

[EverythingCounts]

bamboo oh yes, I remember Jacob Have I Loved now! Have just found this review which has links to lots of other stuff I now remember like My Darling, My Hamburger