Girl Detective

Welcome to the Summer of Shelf Discovery Readalong! The “assignment” is to read a chapter a week of Lizzie Skurnick’s Shelf Discovery: The Teenage Classics We Never Stopped Reading, plus a book a week from each chapter. (Overview here.)

But really, do what you want. Read Shelf Discovery, or don’t (though I do recommend it.) Read a book a week. Or don’t. Read a related book to that week’s theme. Or don’t. Heck, if you just want to re-read Are You There God It’s Me Margaret, join us next Monday on June 18. Basically, read what you want to, but I hope you’ll join in the discussion of these books about coming of age that were read when we were coming of age.

This week, we’ll “talk” in the comments section about Chapter 1, “Still Checked Out: YA Heroines We’ll Never Return”, and any of these, which are from the chapter:

Starring Sally J Freedman as Herself by Judy Blume
Danny, the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl
The Great Brain by John D.Fitzgerald
Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Ludell by Brenda Wilkinson

Or comment on a book you enjoyed as a teen that has a memorable heroine, or a modern book that you think belongs in this “canon.” (Katniss? Lisbeth Salander?)

For week 1. I read the Foreward by Laura Lippman, the Introduction by the author, and Chapter 1, “Still Checked Out: YA Heroines We’ll Never Return.”

Skurnick and her guest writers, like Lippman and Anna Holmes (who wrote on Harriet the Spy), all pull something out of the books and reading process that makes we want to nod my head vigorously in agreement.

From Laura Lippman’s Foreward:

By the time we realize the profound influences of our youthful reading lists, it’s too late to undo them. Yes, if I knew then what I know now, I would have read more seriously and critically during those crucial years that my brain was a big, porous sponge.

From Skurnick’s Introduction:

Some of the lives I read about were very similar to mine…But it wasn’t about finding myself–or not finding myself–in the circumstances of a girl’s life, as much as I might be fascinated by it. It was about seeing myself–and my friends and enemies–in the actual girl.

It might have begun with the covers. Most were either snapshots or looked like soft paintings of snapshots (whither, whither the painted cover?), with girls who were neither good-looking nor not-good-looking

(Aside: as I’ve been combing the clearance shelves of used bookstores in my areas, I’ve been eschewing newer, nicer copies for older ones with painted covers. And imagine my surprise when my mom sent me a copy of Meet the Austins, though it’s not on Skurnick’s list, and I recognized myself on the painted cover. Those who knew me in grade and middle school can agree or not, but I swear, that’s me under the tree on the left, reading a book.)

I loved this, from the book report on Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself by Judy Blume (which I didn’t know was autobiographical) on not knowing stuff from a book, and using it incorrectly in the world:

I wonder if another reason we swoon for Sally J. is that, as readers, we were very much at the same level of detail comprehension–not only in our real-world lives, but in our reading of the book itself.

And from Jezebel creator Anna Holmes’ essay, which ensures that I’ll not only re-read Harriet the Spy, but must own a copy with the old tomboyish image of Harriet on the cover (who knew Harriet might be based on Scout? Not me!):

In the end, of course, Harriet is both able to hold onto her sense of self (”I LOVE MYSELF’ she writes in her notebook) while adding a new skill to her already formidable repertoire: empathy. And in doing so, she becomes not only one of the most well-rounded female characters in the book, but one of the most well-rounded females characters in children’s literature–less interested in dance classes, attracting boys or playing bridge or mahjong than sating her own appetite for curiosity about the world around her. (36)

So, what did you think about Chapter 1 of Skurnick’s book?

Are there any old-school heroines you think belong (Anne Shirley, Pippi Longstocking, Trixie Belden, someone else?)

Any new-school heroines you think would fit right in?

If you read one of the books, which one, what did you think?

Let me know in the comments (they take a bit to approve). If you wrote about it on your site, link back to that. Thanks for joining us here!

If I had to pick just one book to read from chapter 1 of Lizzie Skurnick’s Shelf Discovery, it was going to be A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle. I remember checking this book out of the Evening Street Elementary School library, and the librarian telling me she didn’t think I was old enough to read it. And from there it stands in my memory as the first of my favorite books.

I bonded with Meg Murry, the self-conscious, awkward heroine:

She looked at herself in the wardrobe mirror and made a horrible face, baring a mouthful of teeth covered with braces. Automatically she pushed her glasses into position, ran her fingers through her mouse-brown hair so that it stood wildly on end, and let out a sight almost as noisy as the wind. (8)

The rhythms and plot points of the book had blurred over time, but re-reading felt like getting on a bicycle, or catching up with an old friend–the balance never left.

A few things that struck me reading this as an adult: Charles Wallace would have been evaluated for autism/Asperger’s by the time he was five in this day and age. It’s hard to read IT just as ‘it’ now, and not as EYE TEE (information technology). And, wow, the climax of the novel is on page 253, and it ends three pages later. A denouement would have been really nice. Still, I loved this book then, and now love it again. It is physically hard to restrain myself from going off to read A Wind in the Door and A Swiftly Tilting Planet.

In the ponderously but perfectly titled From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, Claudia Kincaid, twelve, of Greenwich, CT is going to run away. She’s planning carefully, spurred consciously by injustice, but perhaps unconsciously by boredom:

The fact that her allowance was so small that it took her more than three weeks of skipping hot fudge sundaes to save enough for train fare was another example of injustice…Since she intended to return home after everyone had learned a lesson in Claudia appreciation, she had to save money for her return trip, too. (6-7)

Claudia, with her high standards, grammatical correctness, and desire to spend on the good things in life is a girl after my own heart. Good thing she takes along her penny-pinching little brother Jamie, as both bankroller and accountant. They run away to some place famous, have adventures, and get ensnared in a mystery in this funny, sweet, engaging book.

I’m not sure _I_ appreciated Claudia enough when I was a girl. I remember reading this book, and liking it. But this is a book worthy of love. I think Lizzie Skurnick gets to the nut of it in Shelf Discovery when she writes this:

in our post-irony age, Claudia’s experience is also a wonderful reminder of how children, though they may be precocious, certainly aren’t born knowing everything; and that when they do learn about life, it’s not always something awful they discover. (25)

There’s a wonderful lack of awful-ness in this book that made it a joy to read.

or, “I Have a Severe Book-Buying Problem”

I knew this Summer of Shelf Discovery project would hit me in a weak spot. Oh, sure, I’ll just read one book from each chapter. I’ll get what I don’t have from the library. I won’t make a searchable spreadsheet out of the 74 books, and go to every Half Price Books in my area. No, not me.

Here is what I’ve learned. Treasures abound in the clearance sections at Half Price Books. Also Uncle Hugo’s has used young-adult books! Also, see above. I have a severe book-buying problem. But oh, aren’t they just lovely?

As you can see, not all of these are from Shelf Discovery. But some, like Dragonsong and Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey, were what I read growing up, so adding them to the library feels right.

Hmm. The photos look like they’re in a fun mirror. But it’s easy to read the titles, so I’ll leave them, unless you disagree.

Welcome to the Summer of Shelf Discovery Readalong, where every week we’ll be reading one chapter of Lizzie Skurnick’s bookish memoir Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics We Never Stopped Reading along with ONE of the books she writes about in each chapter.

This week, read Chapter 1, “Still Checked Out: YA Heroines We’ll Never Return”, and one of these:

Starring Sally J Freedman as Herself by Judy Blume
Danny, the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl
The Great Brain by John D.Fitzgerald
Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Ludell by Brenda Wilkinson

Or read a book you enjoyed as a teen that has a memorable heroine, or a modern book that you think belongs in this “canon.” Then join us next Monday June 11 where we’ll discuss the chapter and the books we read in the comments.

This is not one of those reading challenges with lots of rules–I hope this will be a fun and easy way for many of us to live the joy of re-reading that Skurnick writes about.

I combed the stacks where I live now (like many of you, I’ve lived so many places that ‘home’ is a complicated word, fraught with baggage) for some of the books for this summer’s reading project, the Summer of Shelf Discovery. Skurnick writes about a whopping seventy-plus books. While the project is to just read one of them a week, I suspect I may get a little, um,. ambitious, about acquiring and reading books. But here’s what I started with:

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
I Am the Cheese by Robert Cormier
Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson
Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield (Fisher, though that’s not on this edition)
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle (with the sci-fi 1976 cover)

Oh, I’m looking forward to reading these again.

In preparation for the Shelf Discovery Summer reading project, I had my mom see what books were still at home and send them. Oh, the geek joy when I opened these old friends today! Thanks, Mom!

Note the prices on the spines: ah, those were the days.

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle,
Are You There God, It’s Me, Margaret? by Judy Blume
Meet the Austins (not in SD), The Moon by Night and A Ring of Endless Light by L’Engle
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Beat the Turtle Drum by Constance Green
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg

I’ve posted on this project already, but this is simpler, I think. If you’re interested in the summer project, email me or say so in the comments if you haven’t, yet.

Lizzie Skurnick’s book Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics We Never Stopped Reading is a reading memoir about the books she read growing up, by authors like Judy Blume, Lois Duncan, Madeleine L’Engle, V.C. Andrews, and the joys of re-reading them as an adult.

Each of the 10 chapters has a theme and several books that Skurnick revisits (see list below.) This summer, a group of us is going to read a chapter a week from Shelf Discovery and ONE book (you choose) related to that chapter. Each Monday starting June 11, 2012 and ending August 20, 2012, we’ll “meet” here to discuss the chapter and books in the comments.

The challenge is to read just a chapter and a short book a week. (You can comment even if you’re not reading the book/s. I bet you remember many of the books we’ll discuss, or can find modern equivalents.) As an incentive for those who read Shelf Discovery plus a related book a week, I’ll have a drawing at the end for a prize pack including a copy signed by the author!

Summer of Shelf Discovery Schedule:

Monday June 11
Chapter 1 “Still Checked Out: YA Heroines We’ll Never Return”, and pick one:

1 Starring Sally J Freedman as Herself by Blume, Judy
1 Danny, the Champion of the World by Dahl, Roald
1 The Great Brain by Fitzgerald, John D.
1 Harriet the Spy by Fitzhugh, Louise
1 From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by Konigsburg, E.L.
1 A Wrinkle in Time by L’Engle, Madeleine
1 Farmer Boy by Wilder, Laura Ingalls
1 Ludell by Wilkinson, Brenda

Monday June 18
Chapter 2 “She’s at That Age: Girls on the Verge”, and pick one:

2 Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Blume, Judy
2 Blubber by Blume, Judy
2 Tiger Eyes by Blume, Judy
2 Then Again, Maybe I Won’t by Blume, Judy
2 Sister of the Bride by Cleary, Beverly
2 Cat Ate My Gymsuit by Danziger, Paula
2 The Long Secret by Fitzhugh, Louise
2 A Ring of Endless Light by L’Engle, Madeleine
2 And You Give Me a Pain, Elaine by Pevsner, Stella
2 Caroline by Roberts, Willo Davis
2 To Take a Dare by Zindel, Paul and Dragonwagon, Crescent

Monday June 25
Chapter 3 “Danger Girls: I Know What You Did Last Summer (Reading)”, and pick one:

3 Secret Lives by Amoss, Berthe
3 I Am the Cheese by Cormier, Robert
3 Daughters of Eve by Duncan, Lois
3 Summer of Fear by Duncan, Lois
3 The Arm of the Starfish by L’Engle, Madeleine
3 Dragons in the Waters by L’Engle, Madeleine
3 The Westing Game by Raskin, Ellen
3 The Grounding of Group 6 by Thompson, Julian F.

Monday July 2
Chapter 4 “Read ‘Em and Weep: Tearing Up the Pages”, and pick one:

4 The Gift of the Pirate Queen by Giff, Patricia Reilly
4 Summer of My German Soldier by Green, Bette
4 Beat the Turtle Drum by Greene, Constance C.
4 Jacob Have I Loved by Paterson, Katherine
4 Bridge to Terabithia by Paterson, Katherine
4 A Day No Pigs Would Die by Peck, Robert Newton
4 Tell Me if the Lovers are Losers by Voigt, Cynthia
4 The Pigman by Zindel, Paul

Monday July 9
Chapter 5 “You Heard It Here First: Very Afterschool Specials”, and pick one:

5 Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
5 Deenie by Blume, Judy
5 It’s Not the End of the World by Blume, Judy
5 Are You in the House Alone? by Peck, Richard
5 Don’t Hurt Laurie! by Roberts, Willo Davis

Monday July 16
Chapter 6 “Girls Gone Wild: Runaways, Left Behinds and Ladies Living Off the Fat of the Land”, and pick one:

6 Understood Betsy by Fisher, Dorothy Canfield
6 Julie of the Wolves by George, Jean Craighead
6 The Endless Steppe: A Girl in Exile by Hautzig, Esther
6 Island of the Blue Dolphins by O’Dell, Scott
6 The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Speare, Elizabeth George
6 Homecoming by Voigt, Cynthia
6 Little House on the Prairie by Wilder, Laura Ingalls

Monday July 23
Chapter 7 “She Comes by It Supernaturally: Girls Who Are Gifted and Talented”, and pick one:

7 Jane-Emily by Clapp, Patricia
7 A Gift of Magic by Duncan, Lois
7 Stranger with my Face by Duncan, Lois
7 Down a Dark Hall by Duncan, Lois
7 Hangin’ Out with Cici by Pascal, Francine
7 Ghosts I Have Been by Peck, Richard
7 Girl with the Silver Eyes by Roberts, Willo Davis

Monday July 30
Chapter 8 “Him She Loves: Romanced, Rejected, Affianced, Dejected”, and pick one:

8 Forever by Blume, Judy
8 Fifteen by Cleary, Beverly
8 To All My Fans, With Love, From Sylvie by Conford, Ellen
8 The Moon by Night by L’Engle, Madeleine
8 In Summer Light by Oneal, Zibby
8 Happy Endings are All Alike by Scoppetone, Sandra
8 My Darling, My Hamburger by Zindel, Paul

Monday August 6
Chapter 9 “Old Fashioned Girls: They Wear Bonnets, Don’t They?” Pick one:

9 Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Aiken, Joan
9 An Old Fashioned Girl by Alcott, Louisa May
9 The Secret Garden by Burnett, Frances Hodgson
9 A Little Princess by Burnett, Frances Hodgson
9 Belles on the Their Toes by Carey, Ernestine Gilbreth
9 Cheaper by the Dozen by Gilbreth, Jr, Frank B.
9 All of a Kind Family by Taylor, Sydney

Monday August 13
Chapter 10 “Panty Lines: I Can’t Believe They Let Us Read This”, and pick one:

10 My Sweet Audrina by Andrews, V.C.
10 Flowers in the Attic by Andrews, V.C.
10 Clan of the Cave Bear by Auel, Jean
10 Wifey by Blume, Judy
10 Domestic Arrangements by Klein, Norma

Monday August 20: Discuss the book as a whole, and the re-reading/reminiscing experience.

Let me know if you have any questions!

The more I think on a group reading project around Lizzie Skurnick’s reading memoir, Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics We Never Stopped Reading, the more excited I get.

NB: it’s a project, not a challenge. I’m going to try and make this as easy, enjoyable, and participatory as possible.

The Project: In the summer of 2012, we’re going to read a chapter a week from Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics We Never Stopped Reading. Each of its 10 chapters has a theme, and essays on several books. In addition to the chapter, read one of the books from the chapter, OR a book from your reading past OR a modern YA or adult book, OR a genre book (sci fi, fantasy, mystery, etc.) that fits the theme. OR don’t read a book, just read along, or reminisce on the ones that you did.

To recap: read a chapter, and a book from or related to that chapter. Or remember rather than read a book. Then discuss. Or just lurk.

See? Easy. Fun!

Every Monday starting June 4, 2012, here at Girl Detective, I’ll post the chapter and book list for the coming week. The following Monday, starting June 11, 2012 and ending August 20, 2012, I’ll write a post on the chapter and book/s, and we’ll discuss in the comments section. I’ll also be posting the blog entry on Facebook. The book has ten chapters, but we’ll go to week eleven for related books, modern books, and a recap/post mortem.

I’ll keep this as the introductory entry, and modify it as needed, so that there’s only one starting place with all the info. I’m also going to try to come up with a spreadsheet in Google docs of the books Skurnick references, and see if that’s a good way to compile and share them. (Because you, like me, may be sending it to your mother to spelunk in the basement for your childhood copies, perhaps?)

I am really excited about this group read, and hope you are, too. Spread the word! And by all means, if you have kids, have them read along for the less racy books.

Shelf Discovery Summer Schedule:

Monday June 4: Start Your Engines. Prepare to read Foreword, Introduction, and Chapter 1: Still Checked Out: YA Heroines We’ll Never Return from Lizzie Skurnick’s Shelf Discovery. Read, or reminisce about, a book with a memorable heroine/hero.

Monday June 11: Discuss Chapter 1 and books. Prepare to read Chapter 2: She’s at That Age: Girls on the Verge. Read or reminisce on, a book about puberty.

Monday June 18: Discuss Chapter 2 and books. Prepare to read Chapter 3: Danger Girls: I Know What You Did Last Summer (Reading). Read or reminisce on a book involving kids in danger.

Monday June 25: Discuss Chapter 3 and books. Prepare to read Chapter 4: and Read ‘Em and Weep: Tearing Up the Pages. Read or reminisce on a book that made you cry.

Monday July 2: Discuss Chapter 4 and books. Prepare to read Chapter 5: You Heard It Here First: Very Afterschool Specials. Read or reminisce on a book about Special Topics like Child Abuse, Rape, Drugs, Alcohol.

Monday July 9: Discuss Chapter 5 and books. Prepare to read Chapter 6: Girls Gone Wild: Runaways, Left Behinds and Ladies Living Off the Fat of the Land. Read or reminisce on girls who are out of place in some way, shape, or form.

Monday July 16: Discuss Chapter 6 and books. Prepare to read Chapter 7: She Comes by It Supernaturally: Girls Who Are Gifted and Talented. Read or reminisce on a book with ESP, time travel, ghosts, and other “In Search of…” topics.

Monday July 23: Discuss Chapter 7 and books. Prepare to read Chapter 8: Him She Loves: Romanced, Rejected, Affianced, Dejected. Read or reminisce on a book about teen romance, or the lack thereof.

Monday July 30: Discuss Chapter 8 and books. Prepare to read Chapter 9: Old Fashioned Girls: They Wear Bonnets, Don’t They? Read or reminisce on an old-school heroine.

Monday August 6: Discuss Chapter 9 and books. Prepare to read the last chapter, 10: Panty Lines: I Can’t Believe They Let Us Read This. Read or reminisce on a book that gets panties in a twist either through intense interest, or outrage.

Monday August 13: Discuss Chapter 10 and books. Prepare to read or reminisce about any other book referenced in Shelf Discovery, or related to any of the themes.

Monday August 20: Discuss the book as a whole, and the re-reading/reminiscing experience. Possibly win a signed copy of Skurnick’s book through a random drawing of those readers who make it through the entire summer.

Let me know if this schedule and the project make sense and if you’re going to read along.

Here are the 74 books referred to in the book. Don’t panic! (See how that’s written in large, friendly letters?) Remember, the suggestion is to read (or just recall) one book from the chapter of the week, so a total of ten or eleven all summer. I’ll also include the list, alphabetically by author, for easier library/bookstore searching. FYI for those in Half-Price Books range, they are having a sale this Memorial Day weekend.

Books from Shelf Discovery, by chapter.

1 Starring Sally J Freedman as Herself by Blume, Judy
1 Danny, the Champion of the World by Dahl, Roald
1 The Great Brain by Fitzgerald, John D.
1 Harriet the Spy by Fitzhugh, Louise
1 From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by Konigsburg, E.L.
1 A Wrinkle in Time by L’Engle, Madeleine
1 Farmer Boy by Wilder, Laura Ingalls
1 Ludell by Wilkinson, Brenda

2 Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Blume, Judy
2 Blubber by Blume, Judy
2 Tiger Eyes by Blume, Judy
2 Then Again, Maybe I Won’t by Blume, Judy
2 Sister of the Bride by Cleary, Beverly
2 Cat Ate My Gymsuit by Danziger, Paula
2 The Long Secret by Fitzhugh, Louise
2 A Ring of Endless Light by L’Engle, Madeleine
2 And You Give Me a Pain, Elaine by Pevsner, Stella
2 Caroline by Roberts, Willo Davis
2 To Take a Dare by Zindel, Paul and Dragonwagon, Crescent

3 Secret Lives by Amoss, Berthe
3 I Am the Cheese by Cormier, Robert
3 Daughters of Eve by Duncan, Lois
3 Summer of Fear by Duncan, Lois
3 The Arm of the Starfish by L’Engle, Madeleine
3 Dragons in the Waters by L’Engle, Madeleine
3 The Westing Game by Raskin, Ellen
3 The Grounding of Group 6 by Thompson, Julian F.

4 The Gift of the Pirate Queen by Giff, Patricia Reilly
4 Summer of My German Soldier by Green, Bette
4 Beat the Turtle Drum by Greene, Constance C.
4 Jacob Have I Loved by Paterson, Katherine
4 Bridge to Terabithia by Paterson, Katherine
4 A Day No Pigs Would Die by Peck, Robert Newton
4 Tell Me if the Lovers are Losers by Voigt, Cynthia
4 The Pigman by Zindel, Paul

5 Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
5 Deenie by Blume, Judy
5 It’s Not the End of the World by Blume, Judy
5 Are You in the House Alone? by Peck, Richard
5 Don’t Hurt Laurie! by Roberts, Willo Davis

6 Understood Betsy by Fisher, Dorothy Canfield
6 Julie of the Wolves by George, Jean Craighead
6 The Endless Steppe: A Girl in Exile by Hautzig, Esther
6 Island of the Blue Dolphins by O’Dell, Scott
6 The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Speare, Elizabeth George
6 Homecoming by Voigt, Cynthia
6 Little House on the Prairie by Wilder, Laura Ingalls

7 Jane-Emily by Clapp, Patricia
7 A Gift of Magic by Duncan, Lois
7 Stranger with my Face by Duncan, Lois
7 Down a Dark Hall by Duncan, Lois
7 Hangin’ Out with Cici by Pascal, Francine
7 Ghosts I Have Been by Peck, Richard
7 Girl with the Silver Eyes by Roberts, Willo Davis

8 Forever by Blume, Judy
8 Fifteen by Cleary, Beverly
8 To All My Fans, With Love, From Sylvie by Conford, Ellen
8 The Moon by Night by L’Engle, Madeleine
8 In Summer Light by Oneal, Zibby
8 Happy Endings are All Alike by Scoppetone, Sandra
8 My Darling, My Hamburger by Zindel, Paul

9 Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Aiken, Joan
9 An Old Fashioned Girl by Alcott, Louisa May
9 The Secret Garden by Burnett, Frances Hodgson
9 A Little Princess by Burnett, Frances Hodgson
9 Belles on the Their Toes by Carey, Ernestine Gilbreth
9 Cheaper by the Dozen by Gilbreth, Jr, Frank B.
9 All of a Kind Family by Taylor, Sydney

10 My Sweet Audrina by Andrews, V.C.
10 Flowers in the Attic by Andrews, V.C.
10 Clan of the Cave Bear by Auel, Jean
10 Wifey by Blume, Judy
10 Domestic Arrangements by Klein, Norma

***

Books from Shelf Discovery, alphabetically by author:

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Aiken, Joan
An Old Fashioned Girl by Alcott, Louisa May
Secret Lives by Amoss, Berthe
My Sweet Audrina by Andrews, V.C.
Flowers in the Attic by Andrews, V.C.
Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
The Clan of the Cave Bear by Auel, Jean
Starring Sally J Freedman as Herself by Blume, Judy
Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Blume, Judy
Blubber by Blume, Judy
Tiger Eyes by Blume, Judy
Then Again, Maybe I Won’t by Blume, Judy
Deenie by Blume, Judy
It’s Not the End of the World by Blume, Judy
Forever by Blume, Judy
Wifey by Blume, Judy
The Secret Garden by Burnett, Frances Hodgson
A Little Princess by Burnett, Frances Hodgson
Belles on the Their Toes by Carey, Ernestine Gilbreth
Jane-Emily by Clapp, Patricia
Sister of the Bride by Cleary, Beverly
Fifteen by Cleary, Beverly
To All My Fans, With Love, From Sylvie by Conford, Ellen
I Am the Cheese by Cormier, Robert
Danny, the Champion of the World by Dahl, Roald
The Cat Ate My Gymsuit by Danziger, Paula
Daughters of Eve by Duncan, Lois
Summer of Fear by Duncan, Lois
A Gift of Magic by Duncan, Lois
Stranger with my Face by Duncan, Lois
Down a Dark Hall by Duncan, Lois
Understood Betsy by Fisher, Dorothy Canfield
The Great Brain by Fitzgerald, John D.
Harriet the Spy by Fitzhugh, Louise
The Long Secret by Fitzhugh, Louise
Julie of the Wolves by George, Jean Craighead
The Gift of the Pirate Queen by Giff, Patricia Reilly
Cheaper by the Dozen by Gilbreth, Jr, Frank B.
Summer of My German Soldier by Green, Bette
Beat the Turtle Drum by Greene, Constance C.
The Endless Steppe: A Girl in Exile by Hautzig, Esther
Domestic Arrangements by Klein, Norma
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by Konigsburg, E.L.
A Wrinkle in Time by L’Engle, Madeleine
A Ring of Endless Light by L’Engle, Madeleine
The Arm of the Starfish by L’Engle, Madeleine
Dragons in the Waters by L’Engle, Madeleine
The Moon by Night by L’Engle, Madeleine
Island of the Blue Dolphins by O’Dell, Scott
In Summer Light by Oneal, Zibby
Hangin’ Out with Cici by Pascal, Francine
Jacob Have I Loved by Paterson, Katherine
Bridge to Terabithia by Paterson, Katherine
Are You in the House Alone? by Peck, Richard
Ghosts I Have Been by Peck, Richard
A Day No Pigs Would Die by Peck, Robert Newton
And You Give Me a Pain, Elaine by Pevsner, Stella
The Westing Game by Raskin, Ellen
Caroline by Roberts, Willo Davis
Don’t Hurt Laurie! by Roberts, Willo Davis
The Girl with the Silver Eyes by Roberts, Willo Davis
Happy Endings are All Alike by Scoppetone, Sandra
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Speare, Elizabeth George
All of a Kind Family by Taylor, Sydney
The Grounding of Group 6 by Thompson, Julian F.
Tell Me if the Lovers are Losers by Voigt, Cynthia
Homecoming by Voigt, Cynthia
Farmer Boy by Wilder, Laura Ingalls
Little House on the Prairie by Wilder, Laura Ingalls
Ludell by Wilkinson, Brenda
The Pigman by Zindel, Paul
My Darling, My Hamburger by Zindel, Paul
To Take a Dare by Zindel, Paul and Dragonwagon, Crescent