Favorite genre fiction books from your adolescence.

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I've just (re)discovered the Young Adult section of the library, and I'm gobbling up books at a rate of two or three each day, just as beach-y reading to offset the Svevo and Mansfield I'm reading on my more serious pursuits. So far I've read from:

Indian in the Cupboard series
Hardy Boys series
Bobbsey Twins series
Dark is Rising series
Encyclopaedia Brown series
lots of Robert Cormier books (!!!)

and sundry others. What else should I do?

― x j e r e m y (x Jeremy), Thursday, 12 August 2004 15:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Famous Five
Biggles
James Bond
In that order.

― SRH (Skrik), Thursday, 12 August 2004 16:50 (twenty-one years ago)

The Chronicles of Prydain-Lloyd Alexander
Narnia will disappoint with its heavy-handedness.

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Thursday, 12 August 2004 17:59 (twenty-one years ago)

The Three Investigators (aka ALfred Hitchcock presents The Three Investigators)
Biggles seconded

― Joe Kay (feethurt), Thursday, 12 August 2004 19:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Big fat second for Prydain.

Willard Price - bratty Americans go to various exotic locales and trample all over the wildlife. I used to love him. He's probably shit.

― Wooden (Wooden), Thursday, 12 August 2004 20:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Also - Joan Aitken. I remember particularly enjoying 'The Cukoo tree', 'The Stolen Lake' and 'The Whispering Mountain.'

― Wooden (Wooden), Thursday, 12 August 2004 20:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Joan Aiken seconded. Robert Westall, maybe. Maurice Gee's fantasy books for children

― isadora (isadora), Thursday, 12 August 2004 23:36 (twenty-one years ago)

A good one from the archives:

Let's Talk About Y.A. Tittle, Um, I Mean YA Novels

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 13 August 2004 02:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Dean Koontz

― Vermont Girl (Vermont Girl), Friday, 13 August 2004 10:32 (twenty-one years ago)

LeGuin's Earthsea books, and a third for Alexander's "Prydain Chronicles". The Tripod books, John Christopher.

And I remember liking some Bellairs novels when I was younger, but I don't know if they've aged well.

― selfnoise, Friday, 13 August 2004 10:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Tripods seconded.

― Wooden (Wooden), Friday, 13 August 2004 11:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Jane Eyre by Currer Bell

― Mr. Tony Plow (Leee), Friday, 13 August 2004 22:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Age 11: Agatha Christie
Age 12: 87th Precinct
Age 13: Travis McGee

― Rock Hardy (Rock Hardy), Saturday, 14 August 2004 22:14 (twenty-one years ago)

this isn't a genre-fiction book really but let me just say that Daniel Pinkwater's "Borgel" is absolute brilliance in "Young Adult" writing.

― djdee2005, Sunday, 15 August 2004 01:37 (twenty-one years ago)

The Smoky Valley Claim, James Lloyd McBride
Goalkeepers Are Different, Brian Glanville

― Begs2Differ (Begs2Differ), Sunday, 15 August 2004 02:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes, definitely Tripods and Prydain. also 'A Wrinkle In Time', perhaps?

― derrick (derrick), Sunday, 15 August 2004 08:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh yeah to Wrinkle. And I was so obsessed with the Anne McCaffrey dragon fantasies that I got one of those fake chameleons -- an anatole, I believe they were called -- and named it Menolly. To my warped mind, it was a tiny fire lizard.

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 19:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Are the further Madeleine L'Engle books worth tracking down? I read Wrinkle, Wind in the Door, Swiftly Tilting Planet, and Many Waters, but I know there were a lot more... Arm Of The Starfish was one, The Young Unicorns too, I think. Any word on them?

― derrick (derrick), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 07:03 (twenty-one years ago)

I loved the Austin family series. I wanted to _be_ Vicky Austin in "The Arm of the Starfish" so very badly. They are a different kind of story than the the Wrinkle books- lots of family relationship stuff, with _some_ time shifting, lots of philosophy (lite, of course) and some plain ole teen angst. They have a soap opera quality, in a good way, if you will grant me that. It's the manner in which the characters interconnect from book to book. Very compelling.

― Rabin the Cat (Rabin the Cat), Thursday, 19 August 2004 04:00 (twenty-one years ago)

time shifting in the story or in the narrative?

― derrick (derrick), Thursday, 19 August 2004 05:46 (twenty-one years ago)

All the Famous Five books (including the 3 sequels written after Enid Blyton's death), Secret Seven, St Clare's, Mallory Towers, and to prove that I was broad minded and could drag myself away from Enid, The Chalet School books.

I did then progress onto anything involving horses, the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew (I always thought Nancy should start dating one of the Hardy boys).

― Cathryn (Cathryn), Thursday, 19 August 2004 12:30 (twenty-one years ago)

one month passes...

What about the John R. Tunis baseball books? Kid From Tomkinsville, anyone?

― Hurting, Friday, 24 September 2004 04:12 (twenty-one years ago)

LOTR LOTR LOTR LOTR warped my psyche forever... I have all kinds of weird crush-tendencies now and I blame it all on Tolkien...

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Saturday, 25 September 2004 01:57 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm surprised no one's mentioned Ender's Game yet. I read that 3 or 4 times from late-elementary to mid-adolescence. Last year I read the sequel (Speaker for the Dead) and was very disappointed at thin characters, awful dialogue, etc. I can't imagine Ender is much better written, and now I can never read it again for fear of confirming that.

― Comme personne d'autre que William (common_person), Saturday, 25 September 2004 15:56 (twenty-one years ago)

hah, I read 'Fellowship of the Ring' in grade 1, and the next two in grade 2. I'm sure I missed a lot of the nuance and loftier stuff, but I certainly followed the story, and loved it. My favourite sections still haven't shifted (book one: Prancing Pony-Rivendell, 'The Ring Goes South', book two: saruman's madness, Ithilien). My dad was so proud, even though I got his lovely hardcover set really grubby.

Does anyone know if the John Christopher 'Tripod' books have been reprinted lately? I don't have a copy of the third book, and can't find it anywhere.

― derrick (derrick), Monday, 27 September 2004 00:04 (twenty-one years ago)

all of eddings, lotr, healthy dose of enid blyton (!)

― darragh.mac (darragh.mac), Monday, 27 September 2004 00:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Not really Young Adult, but for some reason I was really into Ellery Queen when I was about 12.

― zan, Monday, 27 September 2004 19:55 (twenty-one years ago)

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin - One of my favorite books of all time. Well written and fun. It is a great 'puzzle' book with memorable characters.

Anything by Diana Wynne Jones. You could start with the Chrestomanci series (Charmed Life, The Lives of Christopher Chant, and Witch Week.) She writes amazing Young Adult books that really hold up when read as an adult. Other good places to start include Dogsbody and Howl's Moving Castle.

Roald Dahl may be too far to the Children's end of YA lit, but his works also hold up well to adult reading.

― Christy, Thursday, 30 September 2004 18:43 (twenty-one years ago)

ten years pass...

So, Christian Bale as Travis McGee, directed by James Mangold. Plus Rosamund Pike. Too early for a Let's Anticipate thread.

The idea of a McGee adaptation in 2015 is very strange to ponder.

http://www.avclub.com/article/rosamund-pike-star-opposite-christian-bale-first-t-215860

― you make me feel like danzig (WilliamC), Friday, 27 February 2015 17:20 (ten years ago)

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