What did teens (you?) read before there was YA lit?

J.D. Salinger's death made me recall that Catcher in the Rye is often considered the first YA book. In fact when I took a course in YA lit some years ago at Hollins U., the only book in the YA course I had read at the right age was "Catcher."
So what did teenagers read before authors wrote YA lit?
I remember Sally Benson's Junior Miss as a personal favorite.
What were some of yours?

I know my mom read Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. Are those considered young adult or children's?

Though YA lit was definitely around when I was a teen, I don't remember reading a lot of it. I skipped back and forth from the children's section of the library to the adult section (I can't remember if that particular library even had a YA section). I read a lot of mysteries as a teen: all of Agatha Christie, Lilian Jackson Braun's "Cat Who" series, Ngaio Marsh, and others. I also read my mother's romance novels -- Victoria Holt was a particular favorite, as I recall.

children's - we read them in grade school along with the Bobbsey Twins, Cherry Ames, Vicky Baar and more I've forgotten

I think that YA lit has always been around, we just called it something different.

I for one loved the Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew series'.

Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys were teens, therefore, those books should be considered YA... were probably -along with some of Heinlein's work- classified as "juvenile literature" back in the day because they were definitely not for young children but also not for adults.

As a teen, I read every mystery I could get my hands on (Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie), lots of romantic suspense, (Phyllis A. Whitney) lots of science fiction (Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, and many others.) I didn't care that some of the main characters were old enough to be my grandparents (Miss Marple, for example); I just wanted something interesting to read.

I also read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and all of the sequels by L. Frank Baum

I jumped from reading Misty of Chincoteague and Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret in sixth grade to devouring my mother's Patricia Mattews romance novels with great titles like Love, Forever More and Love's Wildest Promise, Sidney Sheldon's The Other Side of Midnight. It was Susan Isaacs' Compromising Positions that got me sent to the Junior High Principal's Office. So, now as the mother of a YA, I am reading her YA Lit.

I don't recall either of my town's public libraries having a teen section when I was in junior high and high school, so it was either the children's department or adults.

During that time period I was really into Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series and pretty much any Star Wars book I could get my hands on.

The Dune books, Andre Norton, anything and everything in the Science Fiction section at the public library, etc...

#6 -- I don't agree, actually . . . when classifying books as children's or YA, I take a lot more into consideration than the age of the protagonist. I put Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys pretty firmly in the juvenile collection because the age at which a lot of people start to want them is 9 or 10. I know as a 9 or 10 year old I wanted to read about characters a little older than myself. The vocabulary is suited to readers at that level, and there's nothing in the content that makes them more suited to a teen audience. Sure, teens read them . . . but a lot of the teens who do started reading them at a younger age. That said, the boundaries between juvenile and YA are so fluid as to be nearly nonexistent, partly because YA lit hasn't always been split out from juvenile or adult.

Sorry to take the thread away from the original topic. Carry on!

Just because someone is 9 or 10 and wants to read about someone 17 does not necessarily make the book appropriate for that younger age level. Sure, the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys were/are rather tame; other books written about older teens aren't as tame, but the morality is different today than it was 40 or 50 years ago...

Imo, a 14 or 15 year old protagonist is old enough for a 9 or 10 yr old to read about; 17 is too old for the younger readers. Nancy Drew and Hardy boys aside, those older characters can and often do get involved in things inappropriate for the young readers. 9 and 10 year olds do not have the level of judgment necessary to decide if they should follow the example provided by the protagonists.

For instance, Nancy Drew often got herself in trouble while investigating the mysteries. A 9 or 10 year old reader may wish to investigate mysteries too, but not realize he/she is too young and might get in even worse trouble than Nancy Drew. On that grounds I would say that Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys are inappropriate reading for that younger set despite the vocabulary and other plot details.

Yes, the boundaries between juvenile and YA are fluid. Much of what was considered juvenile in the 50's and 60's, is, in fact, actually nothing more than a tamer YA compared to something which may be published today.

Oh, almost forgot to say: I devoured the Dragonriders of Pern books too... but most of them were published after I left my teens behind... and yes, I STILL read them.

YA was around when I was a teen, but I too read the Lillian Jackson Braun Cat Who... series when I was 12-13. I also really liked the Chronicles of Narnia series around that age and younger, and I was fairly obsessed with James Herriot's Dog Stories and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books. Anything with a dog, cat, or horse on it was fair game.

By the time I was old enough for YA, I was reading adult books: Steinbeck, Atwood and the like. Now, I read more YA than anything because I'm a teen librarian. :)

I read both YA - though it was still often classified in the children's section back in the seventies and eighties when I was a child/teenager, but also read adult books that relied on plot and story rather than books of ideas. People I remember reading at the YA age are Stephen King, Heinlein (not just his juveniles) and Joan Aiken. Does anyone else remember Joan Aiken? She is undeservedly mostly forgotten except for her juveniles. I also read a lot of the mass market/best-seller/guilty pleasures that the adults in the house had around. So, I remember reading Jaws and Coma and the Far Pavillions and The Thorn Birds and Whispers by Dean Koontz and even Scruples and other bodice rippers of the era - Bloodline by Sidney Sheldon and Sweet Savage Love come to mind. Hey - I was 11 to 14 and couldn't yet tell the ridiculous from the sublime and read both. I also remember A Tree Grows in Brooklyn from this time and Ivanhoe and David Copperfield and Flappers and Philosophers - so yes, very good mix of trash and treasure. And I still read both low and high brow and think it comes from the fact that I was given free rein as a child as far as reading goes; I wasn't told what was good for me and to eat my literary vegetables or that candy was candy and figured it out on my own. And as we all know, there is a place for candy and veggies in diets both literal and literary.

Anyone else out there born between 65 and 75 remember reading the same things?

In addition to the ones mentioned above, Ginger Pye, Charlotte's Web, E. Nesbit fantasy books, The Incredible Journey, John R. Tunis sports books, and A Wrinkle in Time come to mind.

I would definitely say that the basic Nancy Drew series is children's rather than YA. If you're going by the criterion of "must not involve anything risky", then I don't think there's really any children's literature left except the boring kind that tries too hard to teach a lesson and that children aren't actually interested in reading.

As for the real topic, there was plenty of YA around when I was a teen, but I was pretty much only reading adult books by the time I started high school. I'm sure much of it was inappropriate. It doesn't seem to have done me any harm.

#11 -- No, most current books with a 17-year-old protagonist are not appropriate for the 10-year-old reader. However, Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys are. I don't buy the argument that would-be juvenile sleuths are going to get into trouble because they try to do something that they read about in the book. To me, that's up there with the argument that kids will read Harry Potter and try to brew polyjuice potion or fly on a broomstick. By upper elementary, most kids have a good handle on the difference between fiction and real life.

Back on the original topic, I also read a lot of classics as an older teen (16-18) -- Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, Shakespeare, Dickens, Hawthorne. . . . And I never really grew out of L.M. Montgomery; I would reread most of her works almost every year through my teens. (I still get in moods to reread Montgomery, but have a lot more demands on my reading time these days.)

When I was a teen I was still reading Antonia Forest avidly but I also read a lot of mystery novels. All of Agatha Christie and all of Dorothy L. Sayers repeatedly. Diaries, like Samuel Pepys; letters, like Virginia Woolf. I also read classics, preferring short books and plays, like the shorter works of Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Shaw, Poe, James, some Brontes and Austen. I read a lot of historical romances, Mary Renault, Nora Lofts. and less serious ones! I worked reshelving books in the fiction section of the library and could whiz through a romance novel during my break times in one day. I also read Dante's Divine Comedy because Dorothy L. Sayers had translated it. I'm sure it's what got me into college, because I talked about it in my essay and they must have thought "what an intellectual young woman!" That would never happen now...

So it seems that the YA period of life is an eclectic period with some things with protagonists that are peers and possibly written on a simpler level and many of us branching out into both the genres and classic literature. I also remember reading Anya Seton and Daphne DuMaurier during this period - nothing like that first time through Rebecca! And I remember reading The Mists of Avalon at that time as well.

#14 - Thanks for the nostalgia! I remember E. Nesbit of Five Children and It fame.

Does anyone else think that the books read during this time of life (adolescence/brink of adulthood) have special signifigance? I still get the greatest pleasure and nostalgia re-reading something I read during those years - to the extent that some of these things will cheer me on an otherwise harrowing day. And, sometimes the quality of the piece has less to do with whether it is beloved or not - though to be fair, a lot of my trashy reads of those years doesn't get a re-read now. I am thinking of the Flowers in the Attic series that I read to tatters when I was a teenager.

I read Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew in third grade, so I was like 8/9. I don't buy the argument that kids are going to do something if they read about it in a novel. The whole point of reading, IMHO, is to experience adventures from the safety of your own home . . . or wherever you happen to be reading. I remember staying up really late (10 pm?) to finish The Moonstone Castle Mystery because it was SO scary and I couldn't sleep without knowing that Nancy was going to be alright. *grins*

As a young teen, I remember reading Judy Blume, Paula Danziger, Beverly Cleary, S. E. Hinton and books like Island of the Blue Dolphins, Julie of the Wolves, & Wizard of Earthsea. But there wasn't a whole lot of YA fiction and when I was about 15, I discovered historical romance novels. We had to read 7 books for summer reading every year, and that's when I'd read the classics . . . and later when I was preparing for AP classes and SATs and whatnot.

13> I remember reading some of the same things - The Thornbirds, Sweet Savage Love, etc. Never liked horror or science fiction, really.

19> I read V. C. Andrews at a fairly young age . . . 5th/6th grade. Totally not age-appropriate, but then, that was the appeal, wasn't it? Reread Dark Angel as an adult . . . that was always my favorite. Troy *sigh*

Booklizard - you are the second place/person this week to mention Troy of Dark Angel. I am almost tempted to - gasp - pick up a VC Andrews book after all of these years just to see what the fuss is about.

I remember my copy of Julie of the Wolves, but I had to get a bit older before I really understood just how bad things were for Julie. Thanks for remembering the same things.

21> The Heaven series isn't quite as sensational as the Flowers in the Attic series. I think you're right that some books read during adolescence can really stay with you. Troy was probably my "first love" character-wise, so that's why I still remember him so fondly. He really was a great guy - brilliant, talented, kind, gentle, giving, but also sensitive and melancholy. I don't know if the experience would be the same reading it for the first time as an adult . . . maybe, if you still like reading "trashy" novels and falling for the leading male character.

#13 Yes, I am of the same cohort group. I reveled in trash while earning a degree in English. Scruples and Wifey have their place among the classics. ;-D

I read Nancy Drew / Hardy Boys when I was 8 or 9 years old. Loved them, devoured them. During my junior high and high school years, though, I mostly read science fiction and fantasy. One of my Mom's co-workers gave me two or three boxes filled with Ace Paperbacks, and I read and re-read some really great (and not so great) stuff: Asimov, Bradbury, Brunner, Delany, E.E. Smith, etc. Oh, yeah, and all the John Carter of Mars books by Burroughs. I picked up some classics and traditional adult literature here and there in between the sf / fantasy books (someone mentioned Anya Seton-- I also remember reading Dickens and George Eliot and Poe), but I don't remember reading or even having access to anything like the contemporary young adult novel. As a teen, I read books marketed for adults, but I would have appreciated more relevant fare, like what John Green and Maureen Johnson and similar authors provide today's young adult.

#23 - OMG - Wifey now there is a book I read to tatters and have since forgotten. You use the word cohort to describe our birthyears - does this mean you are a fan of Generations? If so, me too! I just wish we were a bit more like the last Nomadic generation, the Lost Generation. I swear I was born about 65 years too late.

#22 - Sometimes I can still do trash - but I remember V.C Andrews and I am not sure I could actually get through the turgid prose without laughing - which makes me wish I had read it at the proper age. I wonder why I never checked out any other V.C Andrews at the time. I associate her with Flowers in the Attic almost exclusively.

That reminds me, some of you must have read Forever at about the same time. That was definitely intended to be YA. Can you imagine what it would be like today releasing a book that was basically a manual on how to lose your virginity and reach orgasm with your first partner? I can almost smell the torches burning.

#26 -- I'm curious . . . do you think YA lit being written today is not as explicit as Forever?

It has been a lot of fun reading all the comments on my post. What an enthusiastic group we are! And I side with those who classify the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew as children's books. Though it might be a lot of fun to rewrite one of them as a YA novel with sex, angst, divorce, and maybe a rape or suicide tossed in for good measure. Throw some real problems her way and see how Nancy copes.

>28 evet: I think those exist already. Does anyone else remember the Nancy Drew on Campus series?

I seem to remember one where she decides that Ned is not (gasp) necessarily her destiny.

I agree with Anastasia that the books we read as YAs ourselves have this incredibly enduring meaning for us. I still read Antonia Forest or Dorothy L. Sayers when I want serious comfort, like some people eat mac & cheese, or twinkies, or whatever horrible food they liked at age 13.

#25 I have not read Generations. I became interested in cohort groups during one of my many forays into graduate school. I think I was only born about 50 years too late. I have a great fascination with the labor issues of the 1930s. I read a lot of John Steinbeck as a YA: Red Pony, Of Mice and Men, Cannery Row, and of course The Grapes of Wrath.

My sixth-grade daughter are about to read Of Mice and Men together.

Foggidawn - No, the YA I am reading doesn't seem to have the explicitness of the stuff I read in the seventies and eighties. Granted, some of what I was reading was intended for adults and was essentially porn for women, but no, I don't see the explicitness in detail that there was in ages past - and I think that people would be up in arms if there was - not that I agree with this. I do however think that there is explicitness in theme in YA - any dark theme can be explored, but the sexual explicitness is gone. For dark themes today, I think of Live Dead Girl and Thirteen Reasons Why. Lately I have read The Hunger Games series Ruined, Life as We Knew It and Devil's Kiss. I just got Rampant from the library, which is supposed to be about virgin girls fighting killer unicorns.

I also recently read Another Faust. Nothing explicit in any of them. And both Twilight, from what little I managed to suffer through, and Rampant seem to be about girls keeping their virginity - at least as subtext rather than text. Those of us growing up in the seventies and eighties were the first generation born into the flower of second wave feminism and it was assummed that women could be as easy with their bodies as men and that it was only a matter of a short time passing before the double standard was completely ended. In terms of societal expectations, it was accepted that we would be sexually active as teenagers and that there wasn't even the possibility of this being at all problematic in any way. Times are different and the literature reflects this. Granted, I haven't read the Gossip Girl series or the Vampire Diaries or other things that might be more explicit and would be glad to hear of exceptions to my musings, but it seems to me that expectations are very different these days.

annamorphic - You are my soul mate because you have comfort books! I thought I was the only one who did this. And interestingly enough, many - not all - of my comfort books are those I read as a girl, when the magic of plot and story could carry me away with very little critical sense intruding on the fun. Those were the days. And these books, even if they aren't very good empirically, will still transport me away from life's vicissitudes.

LCBrooks - I think we are aiming for the same generation as I want to be alive and in my thirties for the thirties and forties (a caveat - we need to be born female and either English or American otherwise the chance of dying during these years is pretty big). And according to Generations four, repeating generational types, we still want to be our same generationaly type (Nomadic/Reactive) but a different version of it - basically the Lost Generation. Generations is worth checking out for the interesting cyclical theory of history (cribbed from Schlesinger) - the descriptions of the different generations and types is a lot of fun. PS - I love Steinbeck too and think he is under-rated as a writer.

Sorry this is so long - you all just said such interesting things - great thread evet.

A book I read over and over was Fifteen by Beverly Cleary. I loved that book. Still do.

I just remembered, I also read a lot of Mary Stewart when I was that age. Does anyone else remember her? She wrote Touch Not the Cat, The Gabriel Hounds, My Brother Michael and Nine Coaches Waiting among many others. I think I was almost 30 years old before I stopped privately fantasizing that I would meet the man of my dreams in an exotic locale while having an adventure. Ok, opened myself up to a bit of ridicule - but you know what I mean.

I do, indeed. I read her books still. Touch Not the Cat is still one of my favorite recommendations.

I still read her books as well MerryMary! And they are among the comfort books I discussed with annamorphic above. Do you like This Rough Magic? I am with you on Touch Not the Cat as it is definitely a favorite. Have you ever read her Merlin trilogy? I havent, but it is sitting on my shelf waiting for the right moment. So much fun to remember all of the oldies.

The Merlin set is awesome! My preferred telling of the story. I have trouble for some reason with The Last Enchantment. I keep postponing it. But the first three I have read time and again.

I have read and enjoyed This Rough Magic, but probably my second favorite is Madam, Will You Talk.

Touchstones don't want to work. They're here in edit mode.

Well, you've inspired me to move the Merlin series up on the TBR list. I liked Madam Will You Talk as well. Not to mention The Ivy Tree.

from 13 to 17 which I guess is the YA lit age I read books like Robert Asprin's M.Y.T.H. Inc. and Piers Anthony's Xanth and Phaze series. I generally read a lot of fantasy during that period.

Like #40, I also read a lot of fantasy from 13 to 17: Robert Jordan's The Eye of the World, David Eddings' Belgariad/Mallorean series, Robert Aspirin, Xanth, Christopher Stasheff (eg. Her Majesty's Wizard), Dragons of Autumn Twilight and assorted other early Dungeons and Dragons stuff, Anne McCaffrey, Robin McKinley (who is now shelved as YA but was fantasy then), The Hobbit, Songs from the Seashell Archives by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, and so on.

I also dabbled in classics - "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn", "Jane Eyre", "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" etc. and historical romance novels - anything by the incomparable M. M. Kaye, The Thorn Birds, trashier stuff I don't remember

Early on I read the Sweet Valley High books; by 15-17 I was reading Star Trek novels from the library.

And I did read V.C. Andrews at the right age (about 13?) and I hated it. For some reason I read about 5 of them anyways. Flowers in the Attic may be a weird series but My Sweet Audrina still disturbs me 20+ years later.

I had forgotton about Flowers in the Attic, I read the first three books (not sure if there were more in that particular series). I think I got tired of them. I've never felt inspired to read any more by her, although I liked Flowers enough to drag a friend to the movie when it came out.

I pretty much read almost nothing but non-fiction popular science as a teen because although I know now that there were great fiction reads published during my teen years I didn't know it at the time.

I'd never liked classics, nor Nancy Drew nor any of the popular children's series. I tried a bunch of Avon Flare titles, but they didn't do anything for me. The only authors I liked were Madeleine L'Engle and Jean Thesman (when she wasn't doing historical fiction, which, unfortunately, was the direction all her later books went).

I was scared away from genre fantasy because I kept trying The Hobbit and wasn't able to work my way past the first page. I knew I would like fantasy, but the way it was written put me off. I kept trying sci-fi also, until it stuck, and when I was 14 or so I read the Dune series for the first time.

I ended up turning to girly Japanese manga to fill the niche for what I wasn't finding in English books.

Finally one day late in college I found a copy of The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin in the bargain bin and a friend loaned me a copy of Harry Potter. Thus I was re-introduced back into the world of fiction in English, both YA and not, and I've been very happy ever since.

What I wouldn't give now to know what my teen years would have been like if I had known about Diana Wynne Jones or Emma Bull, or even, heaven forbid, Mercedes Lackey.

Well, I remember The Thorn Birds as a story I wished I had not read as a young adult, but as I no longer remember what the scene was (something to do with sex?) I guess it didn't really scar me for life. On the other side of the spectrum, Nancy Drew was definitely children's literature for me. She was older than some of the other characters, with something of a romantic life, but I'm pretty sure I was finished with her by sixth grade. If you're going to keep kids from reading things where the hero/heroine does things that should not be tried at home you'll pretty much rule out every adventure book ever written.

I read just about anything by Robert Heinlein that I could get my hands on. Some were in the (gasp!) adult section of the library. I particularly remember Starship Troopers in this regard, though he has much stronger stuff. But I had to get permission from the librarian to start reading books in that adult SF bin. He had juveniles that were shelved in YA in my childhood (born in 55). Citizen of the Galaxy is one I've read or listened to on tape almost as many times as an adult as I did as a kid. I read a lot of SF. Dune, almost anything by Andre Norton, especially The Beast Master. Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, some Ray Bradbury. A Wrinkle in Time.

I read all kinds of books about growing up, and about living in the wild. My Side of the Mountain but also Stalking the Wild Asparagus.

Historical fiction like The Witch of Blackbird Pond and The King Must Die and The Nun's Story and Kim.

I think books like Kim and The Last of the Mohicans are what teens of longer ago read. Along with things like Sir Gibbie and all of the Grace Livingston Hill books. The Scarlet Pimpernel.

Oh, I forgot about The Nun's Story! I read and re-read that one.

So did I. Don't know why Nun's Story fascinated me so.

Part of it may have been that I was not Catholic, and the whole idea of nuns seemed so mysterious.

Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys are still considered Juvenile Lit not YA because of the reading level is a 4.1-6.1 which is 4th-6th grade.

I read Ann Rinaldi historical fiction. Christopher Pike's scary stories and Stephen King-especially the short stories like The Body. I loved V.C. Andrews! It's odd how much my tastes have changed...I couldn't imagine reading them now. I did love and absolutely still love Catcher and the Rye, A Seperate Piece, and Breakfast of Champions by Vonnegut!

Touchstoning:

Catcher in the Rye
A Separate Peace
Breakfast of Champions

I read a lot of memoirs and encyclopedias on animals. The library carried mainly condescending YA books. As a 13 year old, I felt insulted, and went to the non fiction side of the library after reading the fifth didactic tale.

Sadly, I don't remember what books turned me off.

Liberty's Excess by Lidia Yuknavitch
Baby names from around the world by Bruce Lansky

Those are the two that stick out in my memory. Yes, Yuknavitch isn't nonfiction, but I can't remember the titles of the memoirs I read.

I was born in 1962 and I recall reading those big bestsellers...Jaws and Coma and Ghost Story by Peter Straub. Also, Stephen King: Carrie, 'Salems Lot and The Shining. Horror seemed to be quite popular with my crowd in the '70s. I recall everyone reading Go Ask Alice when I was in Junior High as well as Ode to Billy Joe Herman Raucher and The Other Side of the Mountain E.G. Valens. Judy Blume, of course, Forever and Wifey.

I too read The Thorn Birds. I can remember my friends reading stuff like The Other Side of Midnight and Scruples, though I didn't. I think we often read those things because they were laying around at houses where we babysat!

mojobee - Horror was big in the seventies and early eighties, and I remember reading Coma and Ghost Story at that age as well, though I don't think I appreciated Ghost Story the way I should have until I was a little older.

booklizard - I was out shopping the thrift stores today as a picker for my small town's brand new used and new bookstore. I desperately want this endeavor to succeed. Anyway, I bought a copy of Dark Angel remembering what you had said about Troy on this list. I also got vintage copies in good condition of the entire Dollanger series for the store as I am sure that someone will get the nostalgia bug and buy the series as an entirety. Anyway, I will report back and let you know if it captures me the way it would have as a teen.

This would have been the 1960s.

age 10-12: all the Nancy Drew, Cherry Ames, Sue Barton, etc. I could get my hands on. I had a friend who had 100s. I also started sneaking up the stairs to the adult section of the library to look through the new books, hoping the staff wouldn't challenge me when I tried to borrow something (they never did). Only later did I realize librarians want kids to expand their horizons.

age 12-15: all of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and the Bronte sisters. My most serious reading period, but probably the least enjoyable (except for Jane Eyre, which I've reread many times). I was determined to get through the Russians, though, and have never gone back.

age 15: Emilie Loring and the Angelique novels. Definitely on the rebound from the Russians.

age 17: de Sade (still have nightmares). Recommended to me by my high school French teacher, can you believe it? (Got them on interlibrary loan through the public library. The staff really did follow the non-censorship rules).

53> I work in a library, and a group of teens have just "discovered" V.C. Andrews. It brings back such memories.

54> Most librarians do encourage kids to expand their horizons, but when I was a kid, the adult librarian used to chase us out of the adult section where we looking for Judy Blume's "adult" books. They put Forever . . . in the adult section!

#54 - Cherry Ames - I had forgotten all about her. You could get used copies of those books in the seventies and I remember them!

#55 - It surprises me that people still read VC Andrews as I am having a bit of trouble not laughing aloud and I have only just peeked into FITA to see if it evoked the nostalgia that other girlhood books do.

I pretty much went from the children's library to the adult library because there wasn't any YA section. I read a lot of Sci-Fi and Fantasy. Tolkein, HP Lovecraft, Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, Asimov, and Andre Norton.

YA was around when I was a kid but I didn't really start reading it until close to the end of middle school. Before that I was either reading childrens books like Goosebumps and the or authors like John Saul, Stephen King, and R.A. Salvatore. I also really enjoyed history books. My teachers all thought I was nuts and wouldn't allow me to read most of them for reading time since they weren't age appropriate. :(

The Boxcar Children (2nd Grade through 4th)
Nancy Drew (4th Grade+)

Never read the Hardy Boys, surprisingly.And I never was into Goosebumps or that book with the kids that transform into animals (Anthromorphs or something?)

In school we used to have "Book Fairs." I guess we did this all the way up to Jr. High (8th grade). They had a catalog for us and everything. So I guess I found a lot of books that way. I found the Shadow Children series that way.

YA was starting to become a niche when I was going into my teens, but...

I read any fantasy I could get my hands on - namely David Eddings's works. Some Brian Jacques, too. The one YA series - or rather, author - that I recall reading was L.J. Smith. In high school I fell in love with the Green Rider series, and anything by Anne McCaffrey's world of Pern.

I remember YA being pretty slim pickings when I was part of the target demographic (I'm 32). Around junior high age, I started feeling like I ought to be moving away from the children's section of the library, but most of the YA offerings didn't interest me. I remember going through a big Agatha Christie phase around then. I think this was a time with some weird overlap, like I was reading Gone with the Wind or something, and then also still The Baby-Sitters Club. When I was a little older, I read a lot of Christopher Pike. I have to say, I really envy teens and tweens for the selection they have today!

I started reading "Adult" books in about 4th or 5th grade (I apparently had a college age reading level at the time). My father would drop me at the library across the street from the YMCA where he had his aerobics class and I was free to pick whatever I liked with his approval on his card. After a while he let me switch from the kiddie library card to the full access one so I could just get whatever I pleased.

I started out with Sci Fi and Fantasy like Anne McCaffrey and Larry Niven.. wasn't terribly interested in other genres until later on in life.

The library called their YA section "Skinny Fiction" but I didn't really go there once I got free reign.

The books I read as a teen were the Dune series and Clan of the Cavebear. There's more of a variety out now for teens to enjoy.

I also read many adult books as a teenager because there were very few YA titles. Some memorable reads were Christy by Catherine Marshall, Dune by Frank Herbert, Exodus and Mila 18 by Leon Uris, The Chosen by Chaim Potok, All Creatures Great and Small and sequels by James Herriot, Salem's Lot and The Shining by Stephen King, Matarese Circle and others by Robert Ludlum. Other favorite authors were Helen MacInnes (cold war spy novels), Phyllis Whitney, Victoria Holt, Mary Stewart, Agatha Christie, Anne McCaffery, Piers Anthony (Xanth novels), Anne Rice and Stephen R. Donaldson (Chronicles of Thomas Covenant).

In my small town library, you had to get your parent's permission to check out adult library books if you were under 18. I can remember feeling librarian disapproval over some of my reading choices, such as Stephen King and Anne Rice. Times have certainly changed.

I was a teen in the 90s. I didn't read a lot of YA books but the ones that I did tended to be by Australian authors. I read a couple by Melina Marchetta, Robin Klein, and Maureen McCarthy as well as Picnic at Hanging Rock. I absolutely LOVED John Marsden's books and read a buch of those.

Aside from these, I also read adult novels. John Grisham certainly comes to mind. I read a lot of his early works. The Firm, The Partner, The Pelican Brief, The Chamber, The Rainmaker... I'm sure there were others. I basically read all the Grisham works that were available pre 1997 (and possibly a few that followed later). Once I exhausted those, I moved on to Patricia Cornwell, James Patterson and other crime novelist.

I'm 30 now, haven't read a crime novel in over a decade and have been on a YA reading binge for the past three years or so. :)
LOVE IT!

strandedon8jo: You just reminded me that I also went through a little John Grisham phase in early high school. I also remember reading some Mary Higgins Clark around that time (I can't believe I had the guts to foray into internet dating after having read Loves Music, Loves to Dance). I still read mysteries sometimes, but I haven't read either of those authors since I was probably 16--neither is quite my style these days.

I never really read "YA" books, though my sister devoured them. They all seemed to fall into one of two categories: fantasy or romance. I really do not prefer either of those types of books, so instead I read Agatha Christie and other mystery authors for adults. I also like general and historical fiction, like To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, and Little Women, and a lot of general fiction for adults. I'd have to say historical fiction and mysteries were my favorites, and still are today. I remember having to read Boy's Life in 10th grade, and ended up really enjoying that. Hated Catcher in the Rye, though- put it down 2 chapters into it- I really think that's an adult book, even though it's often marketed as YA.

As for Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys mysteries, I read those in 3rd and 4th grades and loved them- they really fueled my love for mysteries. I recently asked a 4th grader (going into 5th grade) who loves to read if she had ever read any Nancy Drew, and she said she hadn't, but that she thought those were for older kids. I was dumbfounded! Yes, Nancy is a teen, but the books are written on about a 4th grade level, at least I always thought so. In 2nd grade I read Sweet Valley Twins, though I had grown tired of the series format by the age when the Sweet Valley High books would have been appropriate. However, I did read some of the Nancy Drew Mystery Files paperbacks (or whatever they're called), which are geared to teens as a pre-teen, and found them enjoyable.

BookNrrrd, I think we were similar readers in childhood. I also remember an odd period when I was reading Babysitter's Club (loved the characters, but was growing tired of the repetition) and adult fiction at the same time.

I definitely liked to read books about people that were just a bit older than me. As a 'tweener' (though we weren't really called that yet in the late 80s), I was very into the Babysitters Club and Sweet Valley High books. And I just loved loved loved absolutely everything by Judy Blume. I remember most of them were in what I think was the 'older kids' section of the library, but one day I wandered over to what was either the 'young adult' or just the 'adult' section and discovered there was a book by Judy Blume over there called Forever. I thought, oh hey, another book by my favorite author! I think I was a little shocked when I read that book. It was certainly an awakening for me! And then I passed it around to all my girlfriends at school and one day it got confiscated by our teacher! I was terrified because it was a library book and I thought she was going to keep it and I would get fined. Thankfully she gave it back to me at the end of the day, and I have a feeling that fairly young teacher didn't really think it was a big deal.

I also went through a very big VC Andrews phase. Man that woman was obsessed with incest. I have a vivid memory of doing a book report on Heaven in the 7th grade and making one of those three panel cardboard displays with little clouds all over it.

But later on in high school I read 1984 and then started in on the works of Vonnegut, most notably, Cat's Cradle, which really shaped my views and personal philosophy more than any book in my life. Reading a book at the right age and stage in your life can have a major influence that it probably wouldn't have if you encountered it at a different time. Those books were my first introduction to ideas that were outside the things I had been taught about politics, religion, and how the world works. When you first encounter ideas like that, it really shakes you up. If I read them for the first time now, they might not seem so revolutionary.

And actually, reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for the first time as an adult was what made me realize that books marketed to kids and young adults could be just as fun to read as a grown-up as they were as a kid, and really expanded my reading horizons as an adult.

Historical fiction. Anya Seton, Norah Lofts, Mary Stewart, Drums Along the Mohawk the series by Elwsyth Thane, Gone with the Wind, Ben Ames Williams books, any exotic time, place & location. Soon I discovered Ray Bradbury & Andre Norton & all the early SF Greats!

The Boxcar Children! It's splendid.

I remember reading Pern, and Xanth when I was a teenager. When I turned 16 my mom let me read her romance novels.

I can't help but feel that Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped and Treasure Island are clearly "YA lit". The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain likewise. As others have said, the market segment just had not been so named yet. For marketing reasons, probably, the old works have been dismissed either as "unmodern" or "for children".

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery and the rest of her books. Those're definitely YA books from a pre-YA period.

#73 You're right. I tend to associate Anne of Green Gables with my later elementary school years, but now I'm remembering that I read (and re-read) L.M. Montgomery all through junior high. I believe I even did a term paper on her books for 9th grad English. *Loved* Anne (and Emily of New Moon! And the Story Girl!).

Another vote for Cherry Ames!

I'm pretty young, so the YA category definitely existed by the tame I entered my teens. But just because there was no "YA" category until recently, that doesn't mean that YA books didn't exist! During the 19th and early 20th centuries there were many many books written for primarily teenage to college age girls. Nowadays we might call them "children's books" but that's only because there's nothing really objectionable in them. I'm fairly certain that many Lucy Maud Montgomery books were written for young women, but they just happen to be appropriate for little girls nowadays and that's how they're marketed. Little Women was similarly written for teenage girls, even if we may think of it as a children's book now. Another good example I can think of is Daddy-Long-Legs. It's about a college girl, and I think it was written for girls around that age or a bit younger. I read all the books & authors I mentioned when I was young (elementary school, I think) but I think they're still enjoyable now.

I guess all those examples are sort of old though. I'm not entirely sure what young adults were reading in the, say, fifties. I may be too young to really be able to answer this question well, but I think there were always books written for a YA audience, even if there wasn't a strict 'YA' category.

Gulliver's Travels, Trixie Belden, the Five Little Peppers and How they Grew, Mary Stewart, Andre Norton, Anne Maccaffrey, the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, Piers Anthony, L. M. Montgomery, Tarzan of the Apes, anything and everything by Louis L'Amour, Zane Grey, Jim Kjelgaard's dog books, Bonny's Boy, My Friend Flicka, Walter Farley, Gypsy and Nimblefoot, Greatest Horse Stories, Chip of the Flying U, the Phantom Roan... the Travis McGee series, Arthur C. Clarke, Nevil Shute, Jack Higgins, Alistair Maclain, Helen MacInnes...

If it had horses, dogs, teen detectives, space ships, magic, dragons, aliens, explosions, or a combination thereof and was in the library or on the shelf at home, I probably read it.

Honestly, looking at what I was reading then, and what I'm reading now - my taste hasn't changed, much, LOL!

But I remember friends loving V.C. Andrews, Danielle Steel and Stephen King, none of which I was a) allowed to read or b) ever appealed to me - and believe me, being "allowed" to read something made very little difference as to whether I managed to get my hands on it or not!

I loved comics as a teenager and read all the Betty and Veronica series. I remember I went from these right into classics--I read Ulysses when I was 16--also, Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies and 1984. I also liked anything by Mark Twain. Most of the books mentioned in the other messages were not even published when I was a teenager.

Anybody else remember Sue Barton or Beany Malone? I still like the book Ginger Pye.

I loved Sue Barton and Cherry Ames both, but reading Sue Barton convinced me I did NOT want to be a nurse.

There were YA books around when I was growing up (in the 80s), but I also read Agatha Christie, Dick Francis, Mary Stewart, Ngaio Marsh and Virginia Andrews. Nancy Drew was definitely in the Children's, not YA section of my library, so I scorned them by the time I was 13/14 and moved on to Christie and the like.

This is a really interesting dicussion, given people's different ages and nationalities. There are clearly some authors who transcend all that!

Oops, I forgot Georgette Heyer, the only one of the above mentioned authors that I still love.