Week 15- What You Read As A Teen

This is so FUN. Even though we spent a semester talking about books and our childhood connection to them, and even though this specific prompt was fodder for an awesome week on the discussion boards, looking up titles for this post took me down memory lane.

Running Out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix
This was one of those titles that I remembered REALLY fondly, but had forgotten the cover and the name. The details tickled the back of my brain for years, and when I saw the movie THE VILLAGE in the early 2000s, I was so offended, because that "original, groundbreaking" plot basically ripped of this book chapter-for-chapter. Haddix mixes all things I loved as a girl in the 90s- thriller with zero gore, historical fiction, fearless teen heroine. I recently ordered a copy for my adult bookshelf.

Fearless by Francine Pascal
I happily read all the Sweet Valley Twins and Sweet Valley High books by the time I left middle school, and in my first year of high school, I found Pascal's more "grown up" series. I have posited before that I think this was my first exposure to a trope I see a lot in YA: the gorgeous girl with lethal fighting skills who can save the day when faced with evil but doesn't know that she lovely and hopeless with love. That's a thing :) There are about 36 installments in this series, I think? I only remember the first ten or so and mostly I remember swapping them with friends. I tried to reread them a few summers ago and they didn't age well, but the memories are nice.

From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg
Oh man, this one. I know there's a whole incredibly mystery and that is the magic of the story, but I loved the details of how Claudia pulled off the escape to the museum. Several random descriptive sentences have stayed with me powerfully for 25 years: the distaste Claudia has when Jamie eats mac and cheese for breakfast, even though she recognizes they had to eat something filling to get the most bang for their buck, and a line about how hard it is to hold on to a thought when you're starting to fall asleep. A descriptor about Claudia pinching the corner of an accidentally-discarded train pass and grimacing as she removed it from the trash- I can still see that. I don't have my copy out and haven't reread this in years, so Konigsburg's writing style has definitely stuck with me. I don't know if this one would hold up but man do I love it.

The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline B Cooney
Quick bonus title- OMG THIS BOOK! I know this baby holds up because I have fifth grade girls fighting over it right now. A girl eating lunch in the cafeteria sees her baby picture on a milk carton ad for missing persons. There are a bunch of companion titles that I also read, and a made-for-TV movie starring Kelly Martin that I'm not sure I ever saw but I feel like I did. I had to include this book!