Tag Archives: High School

The Son Of Someone Famous By M.E. Kerr

“MY MOTHER SUSPECTS I AM SLIGHTLY UNNATURAL.” We noted the death of YA giant Marijane Meaker, best known as M.E. Kerr, at the end of  last year: as one of the writers at Harper & Row under legendary editor Ursula … Continue reading

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Your Happiest Years By Dick Clark

Dick reviews many of the problems that face a teen-ager as he or she moves through these changing years, and suggests ways to make the years happy and profitable… What kind of advice does America’s Oldest Teenager, pictured here as … Continue reading

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Love At First Sight (First Love From Silhouette #9) By Elaine Harper

How could nature have produced such virile perfection? Background: I am on the record about how I’ve turned around my opinion on Silhouette’s First Love romances (“AMERICA’S publisher of Contemporary Romance”), at least when it comes to Elaine Harper’s terminally … Continue reading

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Movie Madness And/Or Mania: Mr. and Mrs. Bo Jo Jones (1971)

Back in 2014 I wrote about the 1967 teens-in-trouble classic Mr. and Mrs. Bo Jo Jones, in which author Ann Head (the penname for non-YA writer Anne Wales Christensen), tells the story of how two high school seniors cope with … Continue reading

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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: The Late Great Me! Story Of A Teenage Alcoholic (1979)

A number of ABC’s Afterschool Specials (and CBS’s School Break Specials and NBC’s Special Treat) have been made available on YouTube; while usually associated with heavy-handed renderings of TEEN ISSUES (DRUGS! DRINKING! SHOPLIFTING! CULTS! ALL THE GREATEST HITS!) a number of these specials adapted contemporary … Continue reading

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Wrapping Up The Imaginary Summer Book Club: She Let Him Continue By Stephen Geller

(Click here for information on the 2021 edition of Molly’s Imaginary Summer Book Club Featuring Classics of Women’s Literature.  This week, the 0final selection She Let Him Continue By Stephen Geller) Well, as usual, what was intended to be a … Continue reading

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I Never Asked You To Understand Me By Barthe DeClements

Stacy didn’t look like a reject, and I didn’t think I did either. We were just having too hard a time… I have reviewed a number of Barthe DeClements’s books over the past few years, starting with the not-quite-Lost Classic … Continue reading

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Two By Two Romance #11: A Kiss For Good Luck By Carol Ellis

Originally posted on Lost Classics of Teen Lit: 1939-1989:
Tess tells you how she feels about her new romance. And when you flip the book over you find out in Charlie’s own words what a boy thinks about it all.  I…

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Zanballer By R.R. Knudson

Originally posted on Lost Classics of Teen Lit: 1939-1989:
A girl who would rather call the plays than lead the cheers… At the dawn of the Title IX era, fictional girl quarterbacks were briefly all the rage (even Sweet Valley…

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