Ah, the teen years - acne, growing pains, awkward situations, and books. Always books. I love the urgency found in many young adult novels - it was a time in life when everything seemed so freaking important and life ending/changing. And some stuff was, sure...but most of it wasn't. I still love young adult books to this day. There's a quality about them that makes me relive a little of my teen years the only way I'd ever want to - through the pages of a novel.
1. Forever by Judy Blume - I still feel tender inside just thinking about this book. Judy dealt with first love and sex so wonderfully. No one beats her for writing for people on the verge of adulthood. I still re-read this book often.
2. Up a Road Slowly by Irene Hunt - I must have read this book at least 10 times in my early teens. I felt a little like I was growing up with Julie.
3. Christopher Pike novels - I started out with the Final Friends party trilogy when I was like 10 or 11 and read them as fast as he could put them out into my teens. I still re-read them.
4. V.C. Andrews Flowers in the Attic & Heaven series - Like, no adults knew we were reading these. And they were way over our heads at the time. It's like a right of passage for young girls to read these. Well, it was. I hope it still is.
5. Sweet Valley Twins & High series - I also felt like I grew up with the Wakefield twins. I read every one of these books. I think I devoured over 15 of them in one week on vacation with my grandparents in Ocean City. Gamma never limited the amount of books she bought me, and she bought a lot that week at a used bookstore. No one in my life ever denied me some bucks for books. It was amazing.
Hope to see you back here to check out or link up for Show Us Your Books with me and Jana of Jana Says this Tuesday, December 8. Bonus holiday giveaway.
Happy birthday to my uncle Billy today!
What are some books you loved as a teen?
