I'm going to start with the books that on the surface might strike some as the most trivial, but realistically, because of the age I was when I read them, would have had the biggest impact.

 

Hands down, the undisputed winner for most influential YA writer has to be Judy Blume.  In my previous post I mentioned I didn't come from an open family.  When speaking about my adolescence, I cannot put too fine a point on this:  my entire sex education consisted of a short movie and forgettable lecture in 5th grade that left me horrified, and the works of Judy Blume.  

 

But I got so much more out of her books too.  Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret might have enlightened me on the more embarrassing aspects of puberty, but I also learned the importance of making up your own mind about your beliefs, and that there was no right answer for everyone.  I also noted the dangers of jumping to conclusions about people you don't know; that their reality is not mine.  

 

Then Again, Maybe I Won't taught me that while change was rarely welcomed, sometimes good and unexpected things came out of it.  Deenie was my personal adolescent nightmare writ large; scoliosis terrified me; after reading Deenie it still terrified me, but I could see how someone might survive it and own it.  Tiger Eyes taught me we all carry guilt, even for the things we aren't guilty of and can't control, and while that may be the nature of things, we should never stop trying to let it go.

 

Then, of course, there's Forever...  I doubt I have to list all that I learned from this book, but the most lasting lesson was this: I'm allowed to choose for myself.  I get to make my decisions on my own terms and I'm allowed to change my mind.

 

This, in my opinion, was Judy Blume's strength.  She never preached to her readers, either directly or indirectly.  She created characters that were confronted by the things her readers confronted, and then gave her characters the rational capacity to find the answers on their own. Adults don't play Yoda in her books; the kids reach their own conclusions, and as a result they serve as examples to their readers.

 

There are other teen authors from back in the day that come to mind:  Beverly Cleary, of course, although not for her much more famous Romana series, but for The Luckiest Girl.  At 16, Shelley leaves her family to spend a year in California with a family she barely knows.  While quite a bit of the book is dated now and even a little twee, what stuck with me all these years was her bravery in getting on that plane by herself, her openness to experience new things, and her unapologetic, unabashed delight in the world around her. I admired her for that - I wanted to be like that too, and I am, mostly. I'll forever be grateful to Beverly Cleary for Shelley.

 

Finally, there's Up in Seth's Room by Norma Fox Mazer.  Like Forever this deals with the weighty issues of first love and how far do you go?  This book fascinated me because it straddled two myths:  If you defy your parents you're automatically wrong, and if you're dating someone older, you're going to be unable to say no.  Finn is 15 and falls for a 19 year old.  She defies her parents after she's forbidden to see him, but she calls the shots with Seth.  She decides what she is and isn't comfortable doing and she sticks to her guns.  As a stubborn teen, Finn spoke to me in ways nobody else ever did.

 

I give my mom (deservedly) most of the credit for the strong-willed, independent woman I am today, but it's just as accurate to say these women deserve to share the credit with her; they went where she was unwilling or unable to go, and I doubt she could find much fault with their lessons.

 

            How we first met is about how two people became together. Their names are jenny and rob the first time jenny saw rob was in school in rainbow suspenders and that's how jenny remembers him. Rob was telling his friend that he has been laying as eye on jenny. In the library rob sat next to jenny so he could ask her if she would like to date him but she didn't answer him right away.

I bought this book on a lark, feeling nostalgic for the books I read as a pre-teen and remembering this one as one that my BF and I would sneak back and forth between us.  That's almost all I remembered about it though and I expected it to be an eye-rolling what was I thinking? trip down memory lane.

 

Only it wasn't - eye-rolling - that is.  It was first published in 1979, but once you get past a very few things that date the book (pay phones and the scandal of "living in sin") what's left is an incredibly relevant story about an intelligent 15 year-old-girl who knows what she wants, isn't afraid to assert herself and is stuck between the parents who are afraid she'll have sex too early and the boyfriend who is afraid she won't.

 

And you know what?  The author does a brilliant job of illustrating the stereotypical expectations of both males and females and gives us not only a strong protagonist, but a strong male lead too, who screws up and learns from it.

 

The best part is the ending that respects the story.  I don't think I ever read anything else from Mazer, but I wish my younger self had; I suspect I missed out.

Only 3 this week, and they are all MT's fault because he asked me to order him a stack of new books to read.  How can I possibly go onto a book site and not buy myself a few books?  Especially since BetterWorldBooks was doing it's clearance sale thing where all books are $7 after you buy 5 of them.

 

So I got the last book in a series I read and loved years and years ago (Death of a Harlequin) and since I liked the Dress Shop of Dreams, but ObsidianBlue did not like her latest one, I decided to try The House at the End of Hope Street instead.

 

Then I bought Up in Seth's Room in a fit of pre-teenage nostalgia. This was the book we secretly passed between ourselves (one of them anyway... Forever by Judy Blume anyone?) and didn't want our parents to catch us with.

 

Total books bought:  3

Total books read: 3 

Total physical books TBR: 208

This book had so much potential. The writing, however, seemed to lack flare, that's what I am going to call it. I think I'm becoming a bit of a negative book reviewer here. Anyways, unfortunately, the author happens to be one of these writers with these ridiculous reasons for why something can't be. Further explanation, Jessie, is trying to find her father and decides to start calling all the 150 or so wells' in the phonebook (good luck on that). As she is calling to find him or anyone related, there are a handful of people that give her the excuse of they just moved here so, not possible. I'm sorry, you just moved here which means there is no way you are related? Because we all live in colonies with our families and no where else. I personally don't have any relatives that live in Texas, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Or that, at any point in time they can't decide to move by me, live by one another or back to where they grew up . No,no,no that's not how it works. Maybe one person with that excuse, okay, but a bunch, ha, I don't think so. I gave it a 2 because the ending did nothing for me. She goes through all this trouble searching, fighting, and thinking of her father; to when he is finally in her grasp, nothing. All that, and you did nothing, absolutely nothing. I was left feeling cheated of a story and the ending it should of had.