80's Teen Books: A Comprehensive List
To all the 80s teen paperbacks I loved growing up and for those who are nostalgic for their local library’s collection of bad teen dramas, I’m dedicating the entire month of August (For the past ten years of this blog, August has always been dedicated to nostalgia content) to 80s and 90s teen lit.
Edi Marchen, the writer behind my favorite nostalgia blog did an incredible job archiving the material on her bookish website, Cliquey Pizza. I’ve copied the series I read and loved from her site, so I want to make sure I give her full credit for all her work in research and cataloging the material. All text below my intro is credited to Edi.
This is part two of a six post series.
Take a walk down memory lane and rediscover the good, the bad and even bizarre lit of 80s teen fiction.
Dream Girls
Published by Archway in 1986 this series was written by Rosemary Joyce. The books start out with sweet-natured and gullible Linda Ellis being talked into entering the Miss Crandalls beauty pageant, hosted by the posh Crandalls store. Instantly hooked on beauty pageants despite the back biting, the spaced out drugged, out contestants, Linda Ellis seems to ignore these horrors but none so especially as Arlene McVie who will do anything to win. Steamy subjects like snorting cocaine while shoplifting are coupled with cliffhangers at the end of the books like the possibility of Megan’s suicide which turns out to be a false alarm , Linda’s bad boy’s dui, and Arlene who doesn’t have friends but rather manipulates the people around her with poisonous sweetness and or blackmail. Odd batch of stories for teens that make the world of pageants seem tens times more vapid than I thought. (6 Books in total)
Endless Summer
Released by Ivy and written by Linda Davidson who would go on to write some interesting teen horrors in the 90’s , Endless Summer featured a plot theme basically lifted from a Family Ties episode. While their parents are away, Leslie’s brother gets into a car accident and to pay for the repairs they take boarders into their beach house. All of the boarders however are seemingly young and hip- Angelo DeFurie a.k.a Fury a wicked surfer, pretty but secretive Pamela Easton, talkative Jed, and aspiring country Western singer Tracy. Most of the action takes place on the beach with Leslie, proud to be the only girl lifeguard. Sunny little series captures the surf n’ turf atmosphere of the 80’s in California with surfer dudes, pink zinc, and silk screened muscle shirts. (6 Books in Total)
The Fabulous Five
This series was published by Bantam Skylark as an evolution from an ongoing successful series dubbed the Taffy Books, about the same group of girls only one year older. Written by Betsy Haynes, the series shows the most glowing report of school life outside of a Andy Hardy movie and even manages to one-up Sweet Valley High with their loyalty. The series revolves around the head butting between two rival cliques in Wakeman. The Fabulous Five include Jana Morgan – their sweet likable leader, Beth Barry – the theatrical show-off, Christie Winchell – the tennis loving brainiac, Melanie Edwards – the dreamy, boycrazy sweetheart and Katie Shannon – the ridged, opinionated feminist. The writing was vibrant and memorable, the plots lively and exciting. Who could forget a stepfather named Pink? a pregnant dog named Rainbow? a teacher who purposely dresses like Dracula and has students dissecting cow eye balls ? a hangout called Bumpers furnished with battered carnival rides ? (32 Books in total, plus four super specials)
Written by Linda A. Cooney (again, the writing duo of Linda Alper & Kevin Cooney.) and published in 1994 for Harper paperbacks. Freshman Dorm is one of my most favorite teen series. And it feels like no one else read or talk about this series but me. The three core characters - KC, Winnie, and Faith, who were best friends in high school have decided to go to college together. KC is studious and business-minded, always trying to get ahead, and she sets her sights immediately on the best sororities. Winnie is the extroverted wild child of the group. And Faith is shy, sweet and kind, but she wants to break out of her shell in college, which is hard since her high school boyfriend Brooks decides to go to the same university. The books were popular enough to have its own, but very quickly cancelled TV show starring Robin Lively from Teen Witch and Matthew Fox from Lost. If you can find the 5-ish episodes of this show, please let me know if it ever ends up on the internet, I can only find the trailer.
Friends 4-Ever
Published by Apple this was a preteen series bridging the gap between the Babysitters Club and Little Sister. It seemed too young for readers of the Babysitter’s Club and yet too old for readers of Little Sister. The series was written by Deirdre Corey who had her thumb neatly on the pulse of that awkward age before girls become interested in clothes and make-up when rainbow stickers, climbing trees and the cat’s cradle were your main interests, other than your friends. The series featured gentle Laura Ryder, cheerful Molly, tomboyish Stephanie ‘Stevie’ Ames and bubbly Meg who when their friendship is threatened, as Molly learns she is moving to Kansas for a year, band together to form a club – the Friends 4-ever club and become pen pals. Each book featured letters as they confided in Molly whatever snafu they were experiencing at home or school with letters from Molly about how she was coping in Kansas. (12 books in total)
The Girls of Canby Hall
Published by Scholastic this boarding school themed series is perhaps, if not, the most solid, believable teen 80’s series ever! It didn’t follow the given formula , or resort to cheap theatrics, pulpy sensationalistic topics, psychotic characters or mind-numbingly bad plots in fact it was intelligently paced and remarkably well written. The characters were genuine nice girls – Shelley Hyde a flighty, theatrical actress-wannabee from Iowa, Dana Morrison a sophisticated , smart , stylish girl from Manhattan who drinks Tab soda and has been known to paint her toenails pale green and Faith Thompson, a pretty black girl who comes from Washington, loves photography. Canby Hall is as much a character as the girls themselves a building with a slightly romantic history and beautiful Boston seasons offering ice skating in Winter and fall colors in Autumn. Breaking with typical series tradition the girls leave and graduate and by book 18 a new set of girls moves into room 407. The plots focused on homesickness, fitting in, flirting with boys at the Tutti Frutti ice cream shop or Pizza Pete’s and reinforcing their friendship through the loneliness of boarding school. The series wasn’t written by Emily Chase it’s only a pseudonym for a handful of talented writers some of whom went on to write best selling romances. (33 books in Total and two super specials)
Going Places
Released by Laurel-leaf this is more of a mini-series than an actual ongoing series. It tells the story of four friends who land summer jobs in their future dream careers. Each title echoes the atmosphere of
the job – Amanda’s is of course medicine , Jill’s journalism, Cameron’s modeling, and Tracie’s is television. I have to hand it to Barbara Girion she’s done her research and created believable settings for each adventure. The characters are the kind of likable , easy to relate to heroines that season every series, the kind you root for to do well and groan when they’re in a jam. Love the bright covers! (4 Books in Total)
Heart To Heart
Truth be told I don’t know much about this series accept that it has a gimmick of breaking off midpoint in the story and flashing ahead to show the 14 yr old protagonist at a later age. It was published by Ballantine and featured some sturdy authors whose work appeared in other teen thematic romances. This series is hard to find. (Eight books in total)
John Benton Books ( Living Hope Series)
This series deals with heavy topics for a teen series like girls robbing pizza places, drug dealing, prostituting yet John Benton pulls it off with great panache. The central tie-in for the series was the Walter Hoving House a real life girls home that took in last ditch offenders offering them a chance at rehabilitation through a program headed by Mr. And Mrs. Benton. The girls came from diverse backgrounds with diverse problems all sending them spinning off into the ugly underworld of drugs, prostitution and crime. I would have liked more depth into their reentry into the world. The books were under two logos- Spire and Newhope both of which stem from Fleming H. Revell and were published from 1970 until the 90s. I’m unsure about the list since they are unnumbered – but this is what I have found. (30 books in total)
Junior High
Released by Scholastic this series featured an assortment of authors writing about the anything-but-typical adventures of the students of Cedar Groves Junior High. The characters were familiar – Jennifer Mann a saves-the-whales type, Nora Ryan nurse wannabee and health food pusher, Denise Hendrix gorgeous rich girl who has a make-up brand named after her , Susan Hillard the stone faced, sarcastic girl , Spacey Tracey Douglas , Lucy Armstrong a stylish black girl , Jason Anthony twerp on a skateboard , Steve Crowley who thinks ever girl is in love with him , Mia Stevens the resident punk who wears neon hair , and things like dresses made out of plastic raincoats with the sleeves ripped off , and her boyfriend and co-punk Andy Warwick who embraced his punk status by wearing a dog collar. The crowded cast was always featured in every book since the unusual format usually centered on a school event that effected each and every character rather than personal stories. Quirky , offbeat , and fun but most of all memorable, it was more fantasy than believable but then who wouldn’t want to try out book 3 and actually run their school for a day. Written by a handful of writers under the collective pseudonym of Kate Kenyon. (15 books in total)
Keepsake Romances
This series was not so much a stand-alone, thematic series as it was, rather, the evolving update of the First Love From Silhouette series, under the division of Crosswinds. Dumping their staged photo covers, Keepsake took on the look of the times – model-cute teens in bright colors with contrasting backdrops all angled like Polaroids glued to a school folder. The stories themselves kept up the First Love standard featuring an interesting mix of character, action and place even carrying on favorite authors from the former thematic series who returned with beloved characters like Vonnie and the Blossom Valley gang – though some were reprinted under different titles. All in all a good attempt to keep thematic series afloat – but by 1989 when the series fizzled out with the last book the only thematic romance series left going was Sweet Dreams. (42 books in total)
