Trying to remember an old Judy Blume favourite

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I remember reading the odd Judy Blume book when I was younger and I really enjoyed them, one in particular, but for the life of me I can't remember the name. Briefly tried googling but hoping you wise lot can help.

From what I remember as a child, the main character grew up around the time of WW2. I think her father might have been a dentist. I remember something at the beginning about playing Cowboys and Indians and also Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. The family moved at some point and the girl was convinced a new neighbour was Hitler.

Now I have written it down it sounds blood weird but I loved it when I was young and would like to read it again. Cheers

YY Lucked! Killing Mr Griffin was really grim! I also had 'Daughters of Eve', which was actually, I now see, a deeply anti-feminist book, and I think 'Down a Dark Hall', which was about a boarding school with just 4 pupils whom the teachers wanted to become possessed by dead people including 'Ellis', who was Emily Bronte.

Lois Duncan was strange.

DD1 came home from school yesterday and said "Mummy I have a present for you" and handed me the first Hunger Games book from the school library! That made me so happy. The thought of being able to share with them books that I actually want to properly read! Is Hunger Games suitable for a 9 year old? It's in her ZPD numbers but has a blue rather than orange sticker which I think means that it is more "complex" themes.

Loved Judy Blume. Also I remember reading lots of sci-fi - Nicholas Fisk anyone? And John Wyndham. Must see if my mum still has them. I also read ALL Fay Weldon's back to back when I was about 15. She is the reason I call myself a feminist.

Did anyone else read Lois Duncan?

Locked in Time is my favourite Lois Duncan book, 20 years on it still gives me chills to think of it. She also wrote a non-fiction book about trying to find her daughter's murderer.

Christopher Pike was another YA author I liked - Remember Me stuck in my mind, it was so heart-breaking.

The only thing I remember about the Anastasia books was her feeling like an outsider because all of her friends had cute names ending in -ie (ey?)...
Made me want to scream STACY???

I vaguely remember those - was it Anastasia Krupnik?

I don't recognise most of the other books you all mention though! I can't for the life of me remember what else I read, although my mum always told people I read a lot! Maybe I didn't?!

Does this story sound familiar to anyone? It's been annoying me for years.
It had an overweight girl in it with little confidence and no friends, based in a school/college. Pottery classes may have been in it? Some guy took her on as his personal project, encouraging her confidence, buying her kaftans (I remember these being mentioned a lot and not having a clue what they were!), then she started hanging out with other people, I remember some sort of tirade he directed at her which made her cry.

I'm so happy to see other people mentioning the Drina and Sadler's Wells books - I loved them when I was younger but no-one else I knew had ever heard of them. One of my favourite parts was when Sebastian proposed on St Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh and Julie (?) talked about how she gave all the traffic signals on the way back so she could admire her engagement ring sparkling in the sunshine. I also loved the Drina book in Italy when she ended up being involved in a ballet despite only being there on holiday. I still haven't seen The Nutcracker and I really want to after reading all the fantastic descriptions of it in the Drina books!

Did Lois Duncan write the one about the girl who could leave her body, (astral something?), and had a twin she didn't know about, who managed to take over her body because she wanted revenge for not being adopted by the same family? Might have been Stranger With My Face/Eyes?

I didn't really read much teen fiction as a teenager (not enough detectives) but I loved Paula Danziger. It's an Aardvaark-Eat-Turtle-World was one of my favourites:
"Moving here, Phoebe immediately started going out with her boyfriend, Dave. I, who have lived here for years, am going to the with the Little Nerdlet."

Starring Sally J Freedman As Herself was probably my favourite of Judy Blume's books: the relationship between the brother and sister, the know-it-all neighbour and the wonderful grandmother are all so well written. There's a lovely scene in it where Sally is talking to her mother about a glamorous woman they've met and says 'she looks nice but I don't think she could love a child the way she loves her diamonds'- I thought it was quite nice when I was 12 but I bet it would have me sniffing into my tea a bit now.

Oh just found the Lois Duncan book - it was called Stranger With My Face, and there was a film made of it in 2009!

I loved Judy Blume - one no-one's mentioned yet is Not the End of the World about a girl whose parents have just split, and she worries that there might never again be a A+ day once you turn 12. Unlike lots of her cool urban parents it seemed a more relateable story of boring suburban life. And I cringed along with Sheila the Great and her attempts to hide the fact she couldn't swim - and related to Tony in Then again, Maybe I won't, who was fascinated with his glamourous late-teenage neighbour Lisa getting undressed each night with the curtains open.

Liked Ramona and Paula Danziger too - Danziger managed to be funny as well as poignant.

oh I love this thread

has brought back so many memories, am going to order some of these books for my dd

Tootsie too / I wouldn't have wanted Dd reading Hunger Games at age 9. The whole premise of the story and the actual content isn't really young child friendly. It is definitely one to save til end of y6 and into secondary.

Maybe read it yourself first.

I know the one where the old people died of f Taytocrisps - Empty World by John Christopher?

This thread has brought back some memories!

I think stranger with my face was the first Lous Duncan book I read, I hadn't come across anything like it before and locked in time was very creepy. I am off to google daughters of eve, I am not sure I have read it.

Thanks Hulababy. I'm a chapter in and I thought it seemed a bit too scarily dystopian.

She found it for me as I'd been talking about it as I've never read or watched it and said I wanted to know what it was about. I liked that!

Omg, the Bewitching of Alison Albright was a book that I have thought about for over 30 years but in a really mercurial rose tinted fuzzy way - could always picture the cover but not the title. It was always in the back of my mind when I reminisced about my pre teen years at the library and now I have it on my Kindle thanks to this thread - thanks so much - I will be skipping to bed tonight at 8.30!!
Also loved JB - I had scoliosis as a teenager and was both horrified and comforted by Deenie - just the word Deenie makes me feel frightened about that time.
God I love the powerful emotive effect of books!

Jmangel- me too!! So glad I know the name now, I went to find it straight away.
Will be strange reading it as a 38 year old though

Thanks MissRabbit so much - you've made my day!

I used to love Judy Blume so much. I think I read Deenie and Tiger Eyes about a million times. The latter was turned into a movie a few years ago, and I keep forgetting to track it down. I remember a very tatty copy of Are You There God? being passed around my friends.

I'm trying to remember if there was a Judy Blume book written from the perspective of a girl whose best friend's mother dies? The girl's family take the bereaved friend in, and the protagonist starts to get resentful of her friend as she takes up her own mother's attention. I don't remember enough about the book to Google it.

We were also really into Virginia Andrews. Everyone in my class read Flowers in the Attic because it was soooo naughty. The woman must have written about a million books, all about rich southern families, and I read loads of them.

We were also really into Virginia Andrews. Everyone in my class read Flowers in the Attic because it was soooo naughty.  The woman must have written about a million books, all about rich southern families, and I read loads of them.

And she was obsessed with incest! I preferred the Heaven series to the Flowers in the Attic one tbh. Did anyone see the recent TV adaptation? Actually not that recent, maybe 2-3 years ago. I think they might've done all four books.

Does anyone remember a series of books about 4 teenage sisters? Each book was told from the perspective of a different one. The first one was about a girl who was in a group, the doodle bugs I think (??) and she ends up protesting that the school library was going to censor some books that I remember thinking sounded like they could have been written by Judy Blume, but the author was fictional - if that makes sense. Ringing any bells??

There's a film of Tiger Eyes???

I remember this weird sci-fi novel called Grinny. It was about a great aunt who came to stay but turned out to be an alien. It was very realistic!