The transition from pre-chick to mid-chick lit was relatively painless thanks to great books like these (shown with the covers as they were when I read them):
Sweet Valley High books were to my young adulthood what Trixie Belden books had been to my childhood– absolute reading bliss. I followed the series obsessively faithfully until I had to admit I was too old to read them. Click here to see all of the book covers.
Sweet Valley High’s creator, Francine Pascal, wrote the first of these 3 Victoria Books in 1977. Besides Trixie and Narnia books, they’re the only childhood/young adult books I still own. In Hangin’ Out with Cici, Victoria has a Back-to-the-Future opportunity to meet her mother when she is a teenager. Victoria is a summer nanny at the beach in My First Love and Other Disasters, and a camp worker in love with a counselor in Love and Betrayal & Hold the Mayo!
How could I not like Cynthia Blair’s The Banana Split Affair, and other similar named-after-dessert books? Hmmm…yet another series about identical twins. This explains a lot. Blair also wrote Freedom to Dream, a book about a girl who travels back to the Revolutionary War times and gets to witness The Declaration of Independence being signed. Ironically, I just finished reading John Adams today.
The first Babysitters-Club book was published in August of 1986. I can still vividly remember going to the bookstore in the mall with my parents for my birthday and buying that book when it had just come out. I liked it immediately and soon became consumed with buying each book in the series. The strange thing about my interest in these books is that I didn’t like baby-sitting back then.
Two things I recall about the Junior High series by Kate Kenyon:
- I liked them.
- There was a slam book in one of the books. Slam books were a bad idea.
That’s about it for this series.
I purchased Silhouette’s First Love books and Bantam’s Sweet Dreams books in bulk at a local used bookstore. I don’t like romance books now, but the younger versions must have somewhat appealed to me back then.
I had every single one of the Sunfire Historical Romance novels. Each book featured a different girl in a historical time period. She was always forced to decide between 2 (3 if she was lucky) eligible bachelors. Susannah, set during the Civil War and pictured above, was my favorite of the series. I sold the whole set on Ebay to a man who was buying them for his adult daughter to share with her daughter. That made parting with them a little bit easier.
Not pictured (could not find pictures):
The Step-Sisters series by Tina Oaks
In doing my research for the books of my past, I discovered an excellent blog called The Dairi Burger that specializes in nostalgic girl books. The blog’s author is actually re-reading her old books and posting her modern-day take on them. I purposely did not read any of the posts prior to writing mine because I didn’t want to be influenced beforehand. I fully intend to explore and enjoy the blog now.
Once again, I would really like to hear what everybody else read back then.
28 Comments
May 17, 2008 at 5:18 pm
I am so glad you posted about the Sunfire Historical Romances! After I read your last book post I was trying to remember the names of those books b/c I loved them in junior high. Since I wanted to do my own post about my fav childhood books I was racking my brain trying to think of them! So, thanks for doing my dirty work.
I was obsessed with BSC books too! I even tried to form my own club with some friends in 6th grade, but none of them were as dedicated as I wanted to be. I too HAD to try to collect every single one in the series, but couldn’t keep up. The Super Specials became my favorites b/c of the fun vacations they took. Now, I have my collection in my classroom library. My kids don’t seem to like them though.
Megan, set in Alaska, was the first Sunfire book I read. I discovered it on the class bookshelf in the 6th grade. The Super Specials were amongst my favorites too…it was nice to have them not end so quickly.
May 17, 2008 at 9:22 pm
I had pretty much every single Sweet Valley and Babysitter’s Club books. They were so addictive. A couple of friends and I tried to start our own Babysitter’s Club, but it failed horribly.
I never read any of the historical fiction but there were always those R.L. Stein type books for young adults. Those things were addictive too. They actually made of few of those books into movies (I know what you did last summer).
I was reading a post by somebody else about their favorite childhood books and they mentioned Christopher Pike books. I can’t believe that I had forgotten about the Christopher Pike books! I think they are kind of similar to the Stein books.
May 17, 2008 at 11:54 pm
These books make me realize how much older I am than you are! I had an actual baby when the Babysitter’s Club series hit the shelves.
By the time I was in 8th or 9th grade I had already started reading true crime stuff, like the Charles Manson story. I would hide the book in the hallway, run to my room, lock the door & jump into the bed so nothing could grab my legs from underneath.
Since you mention identical twins, I have to add that my sister and I are named after fictional characters Pam & Penny in a series written by Rosamond DuJardin.
I bet that made for interesting junior high book reports!
I love that you guys were named after fictional twins. I very badly wanted to name the imp after Trixie Belden, but Matt wasn’t so keen on the idea.
May 18, 2008 at 8:31 am
I was all about the SVH books. I totally remember when Jessica dyed her hair black! I was reading these books at the end of my elementary years, but moved on to the VC Andrews (FLowers in the Attic) series by junior high. I came across a box filled with them at my aunt’s house while I was babysitting her kids for the summer. I knocked out the whole box! The stories were always weird, but it didn’t stop me from reading them. Then by high school I was on to Danielle Steel.
My best friend was really into VC Andrews, but they were just a little too creepy for me. I was really into historical fiction when I was in high school.
May 18, 2008 at 10:34 am
I miss the SVH books. When I was in university I used to keep some SVH high books around as a way to reset my brain. I’d start getting fuzzy around the edges from reading Important Literature (I have a degree in English Literature) so I’d stop, pick up some SVH and read something just for fun.
Did anyone here read the other SV series where slam books were all the rage? You’re right Allison – those were a really bad idea. Soooo many girly slappy fights and crying in the girls toilet over those stupid books.
All the popular girls in my grade 8 class hated each other for awhile after those.
I love that you used your SVH books to rest between serious works of literature.
Those slam books were a terribly horrible idea, and I know that from personal experience. Do not document anonymously-intended bad things about other people with your very identifiable hand-writing. Actually, just don’t write bad things about other people, period.
May 18, 2008 at 5:25 pm
I read every one of those Silhouette First Loves that I could get my hands on. They were so hawt back then. I need to hunt one down and see if it was as dorky as I think it probably was! ha!
There had to be something good about them, or I would not have read as many as I did. At least, that’s what I tell myself.
May 18, 2008 at 5:37 pm
The Baby-Sitters Club! I LOVED those! And just looking at the covers brings back all sorts of memories.
The updated covers do not have the same effect on me.
May 18, 2008 at 7:20 pm
I waited in such anticipation for each BabySitters Club book! Hoping it would come more quickly than I knew it would, wondering how delicious it would be! It’s amazing to me how much I lived for those books when I was younger
I lived for them too. I couldn’t wait to go to the Waldens or Daltons bookstore on the mall every weekend and pick out a new book. I’m so grateful that my parents kept me supplied.
May 19, 2008 at 5:21 am
Made me smile to see your list of favorite young adult books. While I am a slightly different generation than you (older, wouldn’t you know), I remember many hours of enjoyment reading my Nancy Drew Mysteries! And if I could tell you how many times I read The Boxcar Children as a child of nine, and then re-lived the memory on in to my 30’s, well, the time would equal probably writing my own novel! LOL! My children (in their 20’s) certainly had their favorites, and I remember carrying around a list of “Saddle Club Books” that my daughter already had (and adding to it when necessary), in case I found a book store with one of the numbers she did not have…..for that future gift or just to let her know I loved her. Thanks for the memories. I enjoy reading you.
How could I have gone my whole childhood without ever even knowing what The Boxcar Children were? It’s weird. I hear them referenced all the time, but I don’t think I’ve ever even seen a cover. I sincerely hope that my daughter loves to read as much as I used to (and still do). She’s well on her way, asking us to read the same Dr. Seuss book over and over again.
May 19, 2008 at 9:22 am
I graduated to adult fiction early. Probably way too early. I read Jakes’ “North and South” books by age 11 or 12 and thereby got my first introduction into le petit mort and the nineteenth century equivalents of back-alley abortions. Okey dokey.
I also got into the “Flowers in the Attic” series about the same time because one of my female school friends was reading them and telling me they were excellent. So add incest to the list of things I was probably too young to be learning about. Woohoo!
Of course, around that age I was tempering all that filth with MAD magazine. Can’t get too much more American 6th-grade boy than that.
I read the North and South trilogy when I was in the 8th grade because I had loved the mini-series so much. There was quite a bit of difference between the books and the mini-series! No more John Jakes for me.
I never read Flowers in the Attic, but my best friend (who was a VC Andrews) addict made me watch the movie with her and it scared the ba-jeezus out of me.
May 19, 2008 at 9:57 am
I should read a Sweet Valley High book at the bar. Think anyone would talk to me?
I double dog dare you to do it.
May 19, 2008 at 10:50 am
I still have my SVH books, maybe I should pull them out and read them again. I had forgotten about the Sunfire books. A friend of mine had a bunch of them and let me borrow them when I went on a road trip. Good times!
Argh, I’m a little jealous that you still have them!
May 19, 2008 at 2:16 pm
Speaking of VC Andrews – I watched the movie in my early teens, but my mom was against me reading the book (hmm, how does reading about incest differ than seeing it on the screen?) Anyhow, I bought the book and hid it from her but could never really get into reading it.
That is, until I was in my early 20’s – I read the entire Flowers in the Attic Series and LOVED it. I read the series after it too (don’t recall which this one was) – but at some point all the books just felt the same… I blame it on the family carrying on her name by penning nearly the same books over and over again.
Now I have to go Wikipedia when exactly she died to find out when the books started sucking.
LOL about your Wikipedia mission
May 19, 2008 at 2:58 pm
fan of the svh, first love and sweet dreams books checking in. i was also a fan of the ‘choose your own adventure’ (romance) books.
sometimes i reread these books just for a quick trip down memory lane.
I liked Choose Your Own Adventure books too, but I didn’t realize they came in a romantic variety
May 19, 2008 at 6:02 pm
I loved Sweet Valley High and the Babysitter’s club! Oh man, that just brought back some serious memories!!
Then my memory-revival mission was a success.
May 20, 2008 at 5:31 am
Thanks to my 3rd grade teacher reading us the first book in the “Chronicles of Narnia” and my own brother getting deeply into Dungeons and Dragons and all things medieval, I got into Sci Fi/Fantasy books during my formative puberty years.
Probably my favorite was Madeline L’engle’s “A Wrinkle in Time.”
What a wonderfully odd book and one that read at least a dozen times.
I have never read that book (Wrinkle) which is absolutely crazy. I’m going to have to fix that.
May 20, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Perhaps it is the onset of dementia, but I cannot remember a single book that I read as a child. I do remember in the summer months that I would stay up all thru the night to finish a book that I had started. I also remember ordering many books and posters from the book club thru the school.
This kind of bothers me… I can remember several books that I read in high school for English Literature, but I cannot remember the title of one unassigned book.
Good grief. I spent every summer in the library. Why this mental block?
Once you think of one, the rest will start coming back to you…you just have to get started. I Googled popular young adult fiction for particular years to get me started.
May 20, 2008 at 8:19 pm
Oh Sweet Valley and Babysitter’s Club, LOVED that….as you were growing up, did you ever get into those teen horror books? Like Christopher Pike and R.L. Stine? I was obsessed with those at an early age (like age 12 and 13) even though there were targeted at 16/17 year olds, but you see I would steal them from my sister’s room and secretly read them within a weekend
…oh and here’s the link for the Sleepover Friends (found on that blog you mentioned!), it was more pre-Babysitter’s Club in terms of age, but I just love how they would describe their ritual sleepovers with all the food they ate…mmmm…
http://thedairiburger.wordpress.com/category/sleepover-friends/
I read several Christopher Pike books…I might have to look them up just to prove to myself that I read more than girlie books. It’s funny about the age targeting thing. I always wanted to read the books that were targeted for older than my age. I liked to read Sweet Valley High books in junior high instead of Sweet Valley Twins books and had moved on to adult books in high school. I liked reading Seventeen magazine when I was 13, and felt I was way too old for it when was actually 17. I suspect I’m not alone there.
Must check out Sleepover Friends now
May 21, 2008 at 9:26 am
We both remember reading the huge collection of Louis L’Amour books that my dad had. hahaha… We were probably the only pre-teen girls deep into Westerns.
May 21, 2008 at 9:29 am
good grief… I will stop commenting on blogs until I get my work done. My spelling is horrific today.
May 21, 2008 at 7:25 pm
I am ROFL-copting at the memory of the “Super Editions” (SVH). Oh, man, did I like Super Editions. They might take me a whole day to read instead of a couple of hours. They couldn’t publish those books fast enough. I also remember a Babysitters Club set in a summer camp locale, I loved that. I loved Christopher Pike and I also started reading Dean Koontz at that time. I haven’t read a Koontz in years, but he still keeps cranking them out.
Super Editions were my favorite too…something you could really sink your teeth into
May 28, 2008 at 8:16 pm
OMG Romi, I forgot about Sleepover Friends. I had those too! I only remember the one where they ate all the chocolate moose and tried to make more.
June 6, 2008 at 9:37 pm
Oh my Gosh!!! I found your site through More than and Electrician…
I talk about the Sunfire Historical Books all the time…no one ever knows what I am talking about! I loved them!!! Thanks!!!
I know what you mean…I haven’t met many people who read them either. It’s good to know I’m not alone
June 23, 2008 at 8:16 pm
HIIII!!!OMG I LOVED the babysitters club and svh books! I was also into Sweet Dreams and Nancy Drew.My mother used to say they weren’t good books to read, but I enjoyed them, and isn’t that what’s important? To enjoy the books you read?I never did like depressing books.Anyway,I gotta go now, but I’m glad I spotted this website.Nice to know I’m not the only one who liked those books!I was such an obsessive reader back then.Still am!And still slow at typing…somethings never change!(Sorry this is so long!)
There’s no such thing as a comment that’s too long…unless it contains even one negative word about SVH books
Thanks for stopping by!
July 16, 2008 at 8:09 am
I am only 12, but I started reading the BSC in Jan this yr! Well, not really, because I read my first BSC book in 2004:Mallory and the trouble with twins. I own 17 of the books, and I am absolutely addicted to them. I swear. Sometimes I spend all day re-reading them for the thousandth time! I also like sweet valley twins! I only have two of those, though. Books 1 (the twins birthday when they buy each other what THEY wanted) and the other one went missing a while back now, about 8 months ago, where all the kids think there substitute is a criminal, but, I can’t remember what the number of it is. It’s great to know that there are other BSC fanatics out there!
BSC is definitely a good addiction to have. Enjoy!
July 19, 2008 at 1:10 am
The Sweet Dreams and Sweet Valley High books were a huge craze when I was a teen.
I had all the best SVH books – like when Regina died, Jessica died her hair black and Elizabeth got kidnapped plus all the Specials (they were great!) but was never really an avid collector of them.
I did however go crazy for Sweet Dreams and my collection started when a neighbour gave me her hand-me-downs which were from when the series first began. I hung on to these books for up to 20 years only to find my mother had accidently donated them to charity last week. Devastated!!
I was devastated when Regina died. Hand-me-down books are the best…that’s how I got started on Trixie Belden books.
December 19, 2008 at 7:40 pm
Thank you for sharing this blog! I can’t believe you have this and when I see you that is one of the main things I remember about our childhood friendship:-) Do you remember when we used to check out each other’s books with a made up library card to make sure we got them back?? I still have all of my SVH and BSC books and my sister’s 13 yr old daughter would love to read them but I just can’t let go… Besides I have a 7 yr old who loves to read and I can’t wait to see what she thinks when she gets older. She’s probably going to wonder where their Blackberries are:-)
Holy freaking cow, yes, I remember our library card system. That is one of Matt’s favorite stories…it proves that I have been crazy since childhood. I am so envious of your SVH and BSC books. I still have my Trixie Belden books (I can’t remember if you were into those), and I am desperately hoping for my daughter to want to read those (as long as she gently handles them) someday. I can just imagine how many things in those books will seem antiquated to our children. Good times, Amanda, good times.
April 22, 2009 at 11:39 pm
I have been racking my brain and searching the internet! trying to figure out who wrote the book about the girl who goes back in time to witness the signing of the declaration of independence.Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!