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 three 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.
LINDA BERMAN
A believable and lively series which spawned from the first book, a hit about a trio of preteen girls who decide to create a club called We Hate Everything But Boys. Their goal was simple – to try everything in their powers to gain the attention of the boys they liked and undermine their competition. When not engrossed in their goal they discovered some important truths about their friendships and suffered the pangs and pleasures of coming of age. Being that it was not a typical series it broke free from formula trappings in book 2 Linda changes schools, is basically abandoned by her friends and though desperate to find some way back into her old gang doesn’t realize till the end of the story that she has the makings of a new, perhaps better gang of friends. Written by Linda Lewis who takes accurate stabs at teen girls who during a slumber party cut loose by dry shaving their legs! And lure boys with Turkish taffy. (7 books in total and three prequel books)
MAKEOVER CLUB
This is a sparkling trio set off by a popular novel the Makeover Club urging more adventures for the three characters who after creating a Makeover club to alleviate their fear of entering high school have not only changed their outward appearances but also boosted their confidence – Clarissa ‘Rissa’ has won a modeling contract after shedding her nondescript image. Marsha has abandoned her bowl haircut and shed not only her extra weight but also her nerdy image. While Sara has begun singing in a rock band and dyed her hair bright orange. Nicely written books with the typical clash of the girls vs the villainous rich & beautiful Doris, class queen. Photo covers are bright and colorful, love the descriptions of clothes and makeup. (A Trilogy)
MERIVLE MALL
Hardly high art but loads of fun, Merivale Mall is a happy jaunt through the lives of two groups of teens centered around the Merivale Mall – the workers – sweet Lori Randall who loves her job at Tio Tacos, and her small circle of friends plump friendly Patsy Donovan who has the misfortune of working at the ever- tempting Cookie Connection and sporty Ann Larson who works instructing aerobics at the Body Shoppe. The shoppers include the super rich kids from Atwood Academy one ironically is Lori’s cousin, the often sly, social climber Danielle Sharp whose antics are not as bad as most teen series sirens. Danielle in the meantime goes shopping , always on the lookout for a pricey new suede outfit or suppressing her desire to date bad boy Don James whom her friends would think she was slumming. Put out by Troll with packaging hampered by slightly chalky artwork it was written by Jana Ellis – who manages to put the materialistic perspective in the right cheery light. (12 books in total)
PEN PALS
Published by Dell Yearling and written by Sharon Dennis Wyeth, Pen Pals is an exuberant series about
four girls sharing a suite in the Fox Hall Dormitory at Alma Stephens school for girls and getting tired of their all-girl status. To rectify the matter they place an ad in the paper for male Pen Pals and finally get legitimate responses from the four eager guys in Kirby Hall at Ardley the boys school nearby. The characters are – often-arrogant , rich but somehow lovable Palmer , likable every-girl Shannon , punky, fun-loving Amy Ho ( Asian ) , and fashionable strong Lisa. (18 books in total and two super specials)
The Pink Parrots is a series published by Sports Illustrated for Kids. The series was created by Lucy Ellis – but written by various authors. It’s a sport themed series – a baseball team for girls. The girls are the usual batch of characters in any gang – the outspoken leader – Amy who is called Breezy – who’s idea it was to start an all girls baseball team when she was tired of her chauvinistic coach benching her for every game. Her loyal, best friend Kim follows suit and together they try to round up enough girls for an all girl team – amidst the jeering of their former boy teammates and girls lead by the pink-loving popular brat Lindsay. They manage to snare a tall , shy black girl named Crystal to join the team when she catches their teacher openly mocking the idea of an all girls team, even though she doesn’t know a thing about baseball and prefers ballet. Hostile Terry a plump tomboy and Jasmine ( Jazz ) Breezy’s cousin who would rather be painting her nails. But in order to make it official they need a sponsor and a chance encounter with a wild, big haired woman named Rose Anne Dimona ( Ro ) who works at the Pink Parrot beauty salon not only gives them a sponsor but a coach with unorthodox methods. (Six books in total)
ROOMMATES
The series was geared more for older teens and focused on the more sensationalistic side of college life. Set in Hawthorne college near Atlanta, the stories revolve around the roommates of Rogers House suite 2-c. Naïve, small town Samantha Hill who despite watching her roommates troubles heap up starts trading a good many of her beliefs for their beliefs. Roni Davies a trickster and party girl who goes on a drinking binge. Terry Conklin whose ambitions and studious ways make her seem dull in comparison. Stacy Swanson the rich neglected girl from Boston who battles an eating disorder, smokes and is borderline bi-polar. It’s Melrose Place for the braces and training bra set. (20 books in total)
SAMANTHA SLADE
Published by Archway, this unique ( to say the least ) series really stands out from the pack, it’s part Babysitters club meets The Addams Family. Samantha Slade was an ordinary girl nervous about talking to the boy she likes, joining the Halloween party committee, wearing funky red and purple striped socks with black high tops and looking for a job. After answering the ad for Babysitter Wanted her life is never quite the same. The Browns are an extraordinary bunch, Lupi is a little werewolf, Drake is attempting to become a mad scientist and has knifes hanging from the canopy on his bed, while little Kimmie is a diabolical little three year old. Their pets range from bats to Bubbles – a strange dinosaur like creature. Samantha has her hands full taste testing snacks called Dragon Crisps and ensuring Drake’s experiments don’t cause too much trouble but one thing is for sure the Brown’s are never boring. Love the monster magazine type cover art! Written by Susan Smith who also wrote the Best Friends series. (Four books in total)
SENIORS
Published by Dell this series was written by Eileen Goudge and offered a strangely brilliant but often flawed look at a group of high school seniors in the mid-eighties. Brilliant because it showed a group of girls that are true friends there is not a lot of backstabbing or boy stealing instead the girls are supportive, attentive listeners and caring. Though the characters eventually branched off they started with four girls – sexy, bubbly Kit McCoy who is described as a curvy Goldie Hawn, her ambition is dancing, Elaine Gregory a brainy nice girl, lovely Lori Woodhouse who eventually attempts modeling and Alex Enomoto a pretty, strong minded Japanese girl who is a competitive swimmer. The plots included pregnancy scares, an edgy hard-to-like foster sister, make-overs , and romances with often older men. (20 books in total and four super specials)
SLEEPOVER FRIENDS
Terrific series published by Apple PB and written by Susan Saunder. Sleepover Friends raced along with the big girls of juvenile fiction like Sweet Valley High , Babysitters Club and Saddle Club win the race. The theme was easy – sleepovers. The charm was in the characters. Lauren Miller who is passionate for junk food, sports, and movies, she could also be very susceptible to wild ideas. Kate Beekman, her best friend was just the opposite head strong, bossy and longed to become a movie director. Stephanie Green was a fun-loving ex-city girl who is the single child of wealthy parents, unlike most rich kids in series fiction Stephanie is nice, thoughtful, always giving. Stephanie’s best remembered trait is that she loves the color combination red , black and white and won’t dress in anything but those colors! Each book centered around sleepovers of course rattling off food orgies, mad libs, truth or dare and Friday Chillers ( but wonder of wonders – not a pillow fight in all 39 books can be found)! (38 books in total and two super specials)
SORORITY GIRLS
Published by Fawcett Girls in 1986 and written by Ann Hunter Lowell, Sorority Girls is about a super exclusive sorority at Taft High , called the Pearls and is considered to be the best. The stories surround the drama and romance of the members of the sorority – Susie Madden who is kind and fashionable but considered to be an Ice Queen. Jacquai Hodgkins flamboyant and exotic with a flare for unusual fashion. Liz Moore , tomboyish and sporty , Ellie Winston considerate and supportive , Amy Langston romantic and fun and Paula Parker the wicked witch of the group who often sabotages romances and blackballs out of jealousy. The girls are all obscenely rich and worry about family reputations and their parents expectations , they read Vogue and shop in Neiiman-Marcus and ride horseback at a country club. But their exploits are not much different than SVH for when it’s all said and done they withdraw to the Taft Turf burger shop to gorge on hot fudge sundaes when the going gets tough like any other teen. (12 books in total)
SUGAR & SPICE
Janet Quin-Harkin had two series in the 80’s, On Our Own which was a spin off based on characters she’d created in Sweet Dreams – life long friends Toni & Jill. It however stopped after only six books which I assume was due to the fact that the friends had gone their separate ways and only reconnected occasionally, losing the spark that made the Sweet Dreams books fun in the first place. In this series she seems to have rectified that mistake by creating a similar toned series about Caroline Kirby a slightly uptight, hard working, self conscious teen whose life is turned upside down when her long lost cousin, enthusiastic, chaos making, funloving Chrissy Madden comes from a small town in Iowa, to live with Caroline and her parents for what was supposed to be a year but turns into several. Terrific series with Chrissy usually teaching Caroline to lighten up and have fun.(20 books in total)
SUNSET HIGH
Very much like 90210 the story begins with a fish out of water – mid-westerner Kristin Sullivan
who has moved from Minnesota to Beverly Hills begins school at Sunset High. Her best friend is Monica Miller, an ex-child star trying to catch a big break. Grady Larkin is the handsome , friendly senior who catches Kristin’s eye. The stories revolve around the fast pace of Sunset High, movie deals, casting calls, Sunset High’s media club, parties and of course romance. Though it was created by the writing team of Linda Alper & Kevin Cooney – writing under Linda A. Cooney they only wrote 6 books , various authors continued until the series folded after 12 books. (12 books in total)
SUSAN SAND MYSTERIES
The revamping of Nancy Drew as series and t.v. show and the gumshoe detectives crowding 80’s primetime t.v. had caused a slight boom in series fiction for sticky-toed teens stumbling upon an ever-ready mystery. In 1982 Marilyn Ezzell created her own teen detective the sparkling Susan Sand whose interests lead her into many puzzling situations. A dazzling detective series, packaged with terrific cover art that reinforced an interesting read. The mysteries are clever with background bits of information and descriptions to keep readers intrigued. A Nancy Drew for the 80’s. (8 books in total)
