How about a bunch of Judy Blume books for that age group? Oh, MAN, please do "Deanie" that one about the girl with a back brace and the stage mother who wanted her to be a model! Crazytown.
I am not ashamed to admit that I liked Megan McCafferty's "Sloppy Firsts" and I think there are three books in that series.
How about Cynthia Rylant? The main character in "A Kindness" is a 16 year old boy whose single mom gets pregnant, and I read it ages ago (like when I was 9 or 10, but I think I would have gotten more out of it at 12) but now I must re-read it! According to Amazon, she's pretty prolific, too.
For historical fiction, Betty Smith is most famous for "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" (which is in my top 10 books OF ALL TIME) but "Joy in the Morning" is also excellent and she wrote 5 books total I think. The others might be harder to track down since they're out of print, but the NYCPL system has them if anyone does. And they must, becuse I checked them out of somewhere when I was in early high school.
Norma Fox Mazer wrote some really good ones that I loved in middle school: "Silver" dealt with some heavy stuff like class and child abuse and is definitely YA rather than children's lit.
I remember a lot of girls being into the Weetzie Bat books in 8th grade or so.
There were several books by one author about four brothers and sisters whose mother abandoned them in a car and they go to live with their grandmother? I am blanking on the titles and author, but I read them in late middle school and they were great. I'll keep thinking.
misanthropicsob is right, though ... in high school, I read quote adult unquote books.
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great class!
Date: 2006-09-06 05:41 am (UTC)I am not ashamed to admit that I liked Megan McCafferty's "Sloppy Firsts" and I think there are three books in that series.
How about Cynthia Rylant? The main character in "A Kindness" is a 16 year old boy whose single mom gets pregnant, and I read it ages ago (like when I was 9 or 10, but I think I would have gotten more out of it at 12) but now I must re-read it! According to Amazon, she's pretty prolific, too.
For historical fiction, Betty Smith is most famous for "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" (which is in my top 10 books OF ALL TIME) but "Joy in the Morning" is also excellent and she wrote 5 books total I think. The others might be harder to track down since they're out of print, but the NYCPL system has them if anyone does. And they must, becuse I checked them out of somewhere when I was in early high school.
Norma Fox Mazer wrote some really good ones that I loved in middle school: "Silver" dealt with some heavy stuff like class and child abuse and is definitely YA rather than children's lit.
I remember a lot of girls being into the Weetzie Bat books in 8th grade or so.
There were several books by one author about four brothers and sisters whose mother abandoned them in a car and they go to live with their grandmother? I am blanking on the titles and author, but I read them in late middle school and they were great. I'll keep thinking.
misanthropicsob is right, though ... in high school, I read quote adult unquote books.