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Past Teen Favorites -- REVEALED!

See what books yesterday's teens loved!
Call numbers for the Duluth Public Library are in ( ).

Click for the complete list
(& a print-friendly version!)


1930s
Yowzers! In the 1930's teens were cutting a rug over these books. No dice, you say? Holy mackerel, you have to give them a try. You'll be knocked out!

  Boylston, Helen Dore.
Sue Barton, Student Nurse.
Sue enters nursing school, meets classmates Kit and Connie and intern Dr. Bill Barry, engages in assorted hospital highjinks, and overcomes apprehensions about her personal courage.
(YA Fic)
  Lane, Rose Wilder.
Let the Hurricane Roar.
Newlyweds, Molly and David work hard on their homestead, but when disaster strikes, David must go east to find work, leaving Molly with their new baby to face the prairie winter.
(YA Fic)
  Tunis, John Roberts.
Iron Duke.
Entering Harvard, Jim Wellington finds himself in a completely different world from his small hometown and gains poise and a sense of proportion as he faces the difficulties and disappointments of college life and running track.
(YA Fic)

 

 

1940s
Hey, these 1940's books are peachy keen! Teens were so gung-ho they were reading like gangbusters.

Daly, Maureen.
Seventeenth Summer.
Seventeen-year-old Angie finds herself in love for the first time the summer after high school graduation.
(YA Fic)

 

Schaefer, Jack.
Shane.
A stranger rides into a small Western town in 1889 and creates a lasting impact on its inhabitants, especially on young Bob Starrett and his family.
(YA Fic)

 

Smith, Betty.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
Young Francie Nolan experiences the problems of growing up in a Brooklyn, New York slum.
(YA Fic)

 

 

1950s
Hip cats in the '50s flipped over these crazy books and you will too!

  Felsen, Henry Gregor.
Hot Rod.
Bud Crayne's motto was: 'When you get in a tight spot, use your head and DRIVE YOUR WAY OUT!' The kids idolized him, his friends envied him, and La Verne Shuler was his girl. But Bud Crayne had enemies, too. And when he got on the wrong side of the Law, he was playing right into their hands.
(YA Fic)
  Heinlein, Robert A.
Have Space Suit-- Will Travel.
A high school senior wins a space suit in a soap jingle contest, takes a last walk wearing "Oscar" before cashing him in for college tuition, and suddenly finds himself on a space odyssey.
(Juv Fic SF)
  Stolz, Mary.
The Sea Gulls Woke Me.
A coming of age story of 16-year-old Jean's summer on an island in Maine.
(YA Fic)

 

1960s
In the Sixties, teens freaked out over these groovy books.

Head, Ann.
Mr. and Mrs. Bo Jo Jones.
She's sixteen, he's seventeen, a pregnant bride, and her bewildered groom… playing a grown-up game with adult consequences,
(YA Fic)

 

Hinton, S. E.
The Outsiders.
Three brothers struggle to stay together after their parents' death, as they search for an identity among the conflicting values of their adolescent society in which they find themselves "outsiders."
(YA Fic)

 

Lipsyte, Robert.
The Contender.
A Harlem high school dropout escapes from a gang of punks into a boxing gym, where he learns that being a contender is hard and often discouraging work, but that you don't know anything until you try.
(YA Fic)

 

Neufeld, John.
Lisa, Bright and Dark.
Sixteen-year-old Lisa, smart, attractive, and outwardly successful, suffers from a nervous breakdown that only her closest friends seem to notice and care enough about to try to find a way to help her.
(YA Fic)

 

 

1970s
The reading scene was far out in the 1970's! These books were out of sight - can you dig it?

  Blume, Judy.
Forever...
Two high school seniors believe their love to be so strong that it will last forever. Michael and Katherine, two high school seniors, are completely involved with each other until they are separated for the summer.
(YA Fic)
  Childress, Alice.
A Hero Ain't Nothin' But a Sandwich.
The life of a thirteen-year-old Harlem black boy on his way to becoming a confirmed heroin addict is seen from his viewpoint and from that of several people around him.
(YA Fic)
  Kerr, M. E.
Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack! 0060231513
Many things change in a teenage boy's life when he meets the overweight girl who answers his advertisement for the cat he must give away.
(YA Fic)
  Peck, Richard.
Are You in the House Alone?
As the recipient of threatening notes and phone calls, a high school girl becomes aware that she is under constant observation.
(YA Fic M)

 

1980s
Oh my gawd, like, these 1980s books were, like, totally awesome! Teens were chillin' with these rad books! No way. Way!

Block, Francesca Lia.
Weetzie Bat.
Follow the wild adventures of Weetzie Bat and her Los Angeles friends, Dirk, Duck, and My-Secret-Agent-Lover-Man.
(YA Fic)

 

Hentoff, Nat.
The Day They Came to Arrest the Book.
Students and faculty at a high school become embroiled in a censorship case over Huckleberry Finn.
(YA Fic)

 

Voigt, Cynthia.
Homecoming.
Abandoned by their father and then their mother, four children begin a search for a home and an identity. Thirteen-year-old Dicey takes care of her three siblings over the course of a summer in New England and tries to find a new home for all of them after they are abandoned by their mother.
(YA Fic)

 

 

1990s
Teens in the '90s were stoked about reading these fly books. You, too, can chill with these phat reads!

  Cooney, Caroline B.
The Face on the Milk Carton.
A photograph of a missing girl on a milk carton leads Janie on a search of her real identity.
(YA Fic)
  Crutcher, Chris.
Ironman.
Bo Brewster has been at war with his father for as long as he can remember. A high school triathlete who is close to being expelled following angry outbursts at school, Bo is sent to an anger management class. There he meets a hard-edged pack of survivors whose own defenses are rigged as high as his.
(YA Fic)
  Wrede, Patricia C.
Dealing With Dragons.
Bored with traditional palace life, a princess goes to live with a group of dragons and soon becomes involved with fighting against some disreputable wizards who want to steal away the dragons' kingdom.
(Juv Fic SF)

 

10/5/05
Duluth Public Library, 520 W. Superior St., Duluth, MN 55802