Fine Lines: Jezebel reviews the books that we 30somethings loved in our youth
I want to talk about YA books for girls in the 1980s. Books like Anastasia Ask Your Analyst
Besides PBS and the Thundercats, these books were pretty much the only media I had available during my nerdy nerdy youth. And since I hadn’t been sentient for too long, so they had a disproportionate impact on my social development.
I wasn’t alone. The fine ladies at Jezebel (One of those Gawker media blogs. I’m usually against ‘em. This one, however doesn’t suck.) do a recurring feature called Fine Lines, which is UNCANNY in its ability to suss out YA books from my misspent youth.
I checked out an average of 14 books a week from two different local libraries, thanks to my geek parents. Most of the books I read were comic anthologies like Peanuts, Bloom County, Garfield and (odd for a 12 year old) Doonesbury. However, the books that really got through were the ones like Island of the Blue Dolphins
Fine Lines has them all, lovingly glossed and tinted with a healthy dose of grown-up lady perspective. Go. Go now. Read and remember. You were not alone.
August 4th, 2008 at 8:36 am
Awesome. There’s even a couple of books there that I read… There should be a male version of jezebel that would review things like Hatchet… not that girls wouldn’t read Hatchet… and what about the earlier books, like oh… every choose your own adventure?
August 4th, 2008 at 9:23 am
Ooh thanks for the link, this captures my childhood heart.
August 4th, 2008 at 11:28 am
LOVED The Girl with the Silver Eyes. Definitely one of my favorites. In fact, I recently re-read it to see if I still like it as much as I did back then. Yup. Still do. Can’t wait to see the other books that made the list.
August 4th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
I also read Doonesbury when I was 12. Then I went back and read the whole series from the beginning when I was in junior high. I was somewhat lost during the Henry Kissinger lectures at Walden storyline, but I made it through.
August 8th, 2008 at 7:52 am
I think your character was most formed by those re-print books of POGO cartoons. ;-)
August 16th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
um, I read a lot, but didn’t read a single one of those books growing up… at least I’m on the third page and haven’t read one of ‘em as a kid (though I’ve read the secret garden and a little princess as an adult, when I got them for my daughter)
August 16th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
of course I’m not a thirty something until Dec…
October 14th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Like WK, I LOVED that book. This is the first time that I heard of someone else even knowing of it. I always wanted a sequel or a series.