Pre-pubescent Reads

My son, (aka The Reader) walked toward my car from the school bus yesterday afternoon holding a book up for me to see. "Guess what our class started reading today?" One look at the sepia-toned greasers on the cover, and I knew it was S.E. Hinton's classic The Outsiders (which I last read in middle school, too). I have only vague memories of the movie, with its pre-Brat Pack cast including Tom Cruise, Patrick Swayze and C. Thomas Howell (who my friends and I once shamelessly stalked via a contact address published by Tiger Beat Magazine. Strangely, he never replied). 

Anyway, over the years I've heard many people (usually guys) cite The Outsiders as their all-time favorite classic young adult novel. Mine? I'd probably have to go with Judy Blume's various books including Forever (which, if not my favorite, is at least among the most memorable reads of my youth). I'll never forget standing outside my elementary school and begging the older girls to let me see what was in the book they were passing around that was making them giggle and blush and clap their hands over their mouths. When the book was finally passed my way and I read THAT passage (on p.81 in the old edition, according to this Blume fan)...well, let's just say it was my original OMG moment, decades before OMG even existed. Girls of the 70's, you know what I'm talking about.

So, what's your all-time favorite (or most memorable) YA novel?

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