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

Completely an aside here, but I was completely blown away when I recently discovered that Beverly Clearly will turn 100 this year.

OMG Grinny! I'd forgotten about Grinny!

Yes I did see the Flowers in the Attic movies. All of them. I think they did a pretty good job. There was some awful 80s adaptation where they cut out the incest and changed the ending completely. The new ones were naff, but at least they stuck to the story.

Heaven was a great series! I definitely read all of those, even the crappy prequel. VA always did a terrible prequel to each series that was usually the grandmother or mother's story. Melody was one of my favourites. And yes, each one was full of incest. They'd always end up with a step uncle or cousin.

My Sweet Audrina, another Virginia Andrews one. Re-read it as an adult and was a bit horrified. Very very odd.

Was so pleased to see this thread! I still have all my judy blumes and Paula danzigers. My favourite PD was always remember me to Harold Square. I wanted to go on the serendipity scavenger hunt!

Thank you to the poster who mentioned The bewitching of Allison Allbright - I had totally forgotten about that one.

To the poster who mentioned the book with the overweight girl who got put into kaftans, YYY! I'd forgotten it till I read that. But I can't remember what it was.

Thank you so much ComeLuckyApril. That's it! I spent ages googling last night and couldn't find it, although I came across a lot of similar books. It wasn't the sort of book I usually read as a teenager but it stuck in my mind for some reason - probably because of the grim subject matter.

Manta I remember the books about the four sisters, and I'm pretty sure they were named after each sister: Phoebe was the youngest and was about the library censorship, Daphne was about the quiet bookish one going to junior high, Cassie was about the popular one and her new best friend who seemed very cool, and Lydia (I think!) was about the rebel who set up a school newspaper. Then there was another one about Phoebe and her friend's mother dying.

I had forgotten about the series until now, can't believe how much I can remember!

I lived Easy Connections and sequel, can't get hold of them now.

What was the book with the girl who put a grain of rice under her tongue?

Those books about the four sisters sound familiar now. I'm sure I read them but can't remember the details. Will google...

Found something about Sisters http://www.ilanafox.com/blog/favourite-teen-books-marilyn-kaye-sisters/

Oh wow thank you ellie and cerseirys! Those are the ones! Wow I had no idea they were published in the 80s.

This thread is amazing!

Ok, another challenge. A couple of books, again about sisters. Two sisters, one book about each. One had short blonde curly hair, the other is older, with long dark straight hair (it was the 70s). Their mum has an accident and is j hospital a while? The blonde one loves books about dragons or something. And they make pancakes. And the brunette learns to ride a bike.

Why can I remember all that but not the title or author?!

On another note -
I used to want to be a children's/ young adult author. I even wrote a novel in my preteen years. It's in a box somewhere. Haven't written a word since.

I LOVED Easy Connections, it gave me quite the sexual awakening when I was 12/13

Would love to re-read it. I also loved Nicola Mimosa, Are You There God, It's Me Margaret (in fact all Judy Blume ).

Paula Danziger I read but found weird, I never knew what malpractice was so felt a bit reading Can You Sue Your Parents For Malpractice? She was always on Live and Kicking, too, anyone remember?

This is bringing back memories!

www.goodreads.com/list/show/4403.Young_Adult_Series_Books_published_in_the_80s_90s

I spent hours and hours of my youth reading Judy Blume, the Babysitters Club books, and to my shame the Sweet Valley books. I'd forgotten about Point Horror/ RL Stine but that is ringing bells. My favourites were the Anastasia books though. She was just so quirky.

I used to love Sweet Valley High. They even made it into a terrible TV series. The song is stuck in my head now.

Oh yes I remember the Sisters series - those names seemed so exotic back then, Cassie, Lydia, Phoebe and Daphne. And Phoebe and Cassie were names used by Paula Danziger too, and I had a cousin called Lydia born around that time, so those names must have been having a bit of an early 90s 'moment'.

I remember thinking, even back then, that the Sisters books was trying to be an updated version of Little Women - the shy one, the independent one, the bratty one - though not sure any of them were quite like Meg.

I also remember Paula Danziger being on Live and Kicking all the time - an agony aunt and a writer all rolled into one, she seemed like a total heroine to me aged 13/14!

I was a big fan of Ramona when little and Anastasia when older. I vaguely remember bits of Judy Blume.
One of my absolute favourites was The Computer Nut by Betsy Byers. It was about a girl who got communication through her computer (pre Internet, it so wouldn't work nowadays!) from an alien called BB9 and a kid from school called Willie Lomax, can't remember the girl's name though.
My kids will never understand that one, not least because the idea of having to go to your dads office to turn on a massive desktop PCs will be completely obsolete and the idea of communicating via computer will be completely normal!

Morro - The Fat Girl, by Marilyn Sachs. Brilliant depiction of an emotionally abusive relationship.

Ooh yes to babysitters and sweet valley high too.
I now cringe at reading the rainbow fairies to dd, who adores them (though in her defence she is only 4!) which are possibly not that much worse in quality than either of them.

MantaRayBay that list is fab! That there is my childhood in books pretty much.
I loved the Giver, set me up for a teenagerhood of reading sci fi.

There's a blog called What Claudia Wore, which is a must for Babysitters Club fans!

I know! It's crazy how a list of books can catapult you back into the fog of teen angst!

I have remembered another series I used to read. It took a bit of googling but I found it: Sweet Dreams. Seriously cheesy teen romance from the 80s.

I wonder how all these stories shaped our expectations of romance!

Lol @ What Claudia wore. Some really hideous combinations.

Would any of you hire a 13 year old to babysit really? In fact some of the BSC members were 11! That seems really young to me for babysitting young kids.

I wasn't that keen on Sweet Dreams, but I devoured Sweet Valley High and Sweet Valley Twins. There's actually a book about the series, which is hilarious. It's basically all the blog entries on The Dairi Burger.

Francine Pascale even released a series of novellas on SVH many years on a few years ago.

Morro I'm sure that book was The Fat Girl by Marylin Sachs. It was about an American high school jock called Jeff and and fat girl called Ellen who had a relationship. He got all weird and controlling over her...what she wore and stuff...and yes there were pottery classes in there somehow. I remember reading that.