Tag Archives: 1980

Fat Jack By Barbara Cohen

“A person never gets over high school, Judy.” I’ve written before about my general impression of YA fiction moving from topical issues based on shock value in the 1970s (Drugs! Cults! Satan!) and into more internal crises of the characters … Continue reading

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Movie Madness And/Or Mania: My Mother Was Never A Kid [Hangin’ Out With Cici] (1980)

As this site concludes its tenth (!!!) year, we’re going to do a true Throwback Thursday, revisiting the very first title we reviewed, Francine Pascal’s time-traveling mother-daughter epic (and start of the Victoria Martin trilogy) Hangin’ Out With Cici. A … Continue reading

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Checking In With The Imaginary Summer Book Club: The Burning Bed By Faith McNulty

(Click here for information on the 2021 edition of Molly’s Imaginary Summer Book Club Featuring Classics of Women’s Literature.  This week, the first selection The Burning Bed By Faith McNulty) Is it a sign of the times that we’re finally … Continue reading

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Movie Madness and/or Mania: The Boy Who Drank Too Much (1980)

Shep Greene’s 40+ year old social-problem novel The Boy Who Drank Too Much remains one of the most searched-for titles on this site; judging by the search engine results I see on my end (“boy who drank too much main … Continue reading

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Cute Is A Four-Letter Word By Stella Pevsner

You are about to witness… The Year of the Clara! I wasn’t very impressed by Stella Pevsner’s Call Me Heller, That’s My Name, a pretty generic coming of age story about a tomboy becoming a young lady in the roaring … Continue reading

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Going To Camp Part 3: Little Darlings By Sonia Pilcer

The story of two innocent girls in a race not to stay that way! A one-sentence description of the plot (adapted from the screenplay of the notorious 1980 film) belies the sensitivity with which the subject is treated: two girls … Continue reading

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The Girl With The Silver Eyes By Willo Davis Roberts

Katie KNOWS she’s different but she’s never tried to hurt anyone… Happy New Year! I am starting off 2018 by digging in to my list of reader requests- if there is a book you’d like to recommend (…or remind me … Continue reading

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Checking In With The Imaginary Summer Book Club: Haywire By Brooke Hayward

(Click here for information on the 2017 edition of Molly’s Imaginary Summer Book Club Featuring Classics of Women’s Literature. As all of the four selected titles have filmed adaptations, we will be looking at the movie versions as we go along. … Continue reading

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About David By Susan Beth Pfeffer

He didn’t think there was any other way… I have not compiled any statistics, but my general impression is that as YA fiction moved out of the 1970s and into the 80s, the subject matter tended less toward shock value … Continue reading

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Dear Lola, Or How To Build Your Own Family By Judie Angell

Can they cover their tracks without uncovering the truth? This one might get the honor of having the weirdest marriage between premise and tone: five minors in various states of having been orphaned or abandoned escape from their temporary group … Continue reading

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