Speaking For Ourselves, Too
I mentioned this book on TTT and I flailed about this on Tumblr, but I think I need a blog post to work through my feelings about the authors listed. It was like the best kind of Sporcle quiz, testing myself on how many of the names I know ahead of time, then how many I recognized after reading through their bios and looking them up on Goodreads.
If you need a quick refresher: this book is the second edition/group of authors deemed, by a council of librarians and other youth lit specialists, to be among the most notable/influential and still-active names writing for young adults, circa the early 90s. Given how mega-famous some of these names are now versus how totally forgotten others are, it remains incredible to me that they once would have all had similar name recognition. And while the list is limited to authors who were willing to submit a 2-page autobiography, it also remains incredible to me that some of the older names were not among the first 87, listed in the first book, to be chosen in the late 80s.
You can check the book out yourself to read it on Open Library, but here's a snapshot of the table of contents. How many do YOU recognize??
THE LIST
Starting Stats
Recognized unprompted: 49
Recognized in some fashion after looking them up: +16
Had never heard of: 24
The List, With Commentary
1. C.S. Adler
Of course! That Horse Whiskey! and a whole lot o' other books, many featuring animals. Good-bye, Pink Pig was featured in Paperback Crush, I believe, but I haven't read that one. I HAVE read Not Just a Summer Crush and Kiss The Clown. I just now realized she also wrote Carly's Buck, which nicely traumatized me in middle school, and have been meaning to read her other horse books. I have One Unhappy Horse a.k.a. Saving Dove in a box somewhere...
2. Vivien Alcock
I've read her. An elephant book? something By Night? Travelers By Night, there we go! But nothing else, and until now I did not know she was married to Leon Garfield, also featured in this collection.
3. Lynne Reid Banks
Of course, the Indian in the Cupboard series. Which I don't remember the details of at all, but it was popular in elementary school, and I remember enjoying it too.
4. Marion Dane Bauer
YUP: she's been Minnesota local for most of my life, even though apparently she wasn't born here and didn't arrive until later. I read a bunch of hers -- A Question of Trust, Like Mother Like Daughter, Touch The Moon, a Dear America diary set in MN, Runt, and the lovely A Dream of Queens and Castles. Possibly Ghost Eye way back in elementary school; that creepy ass white cat on the cover looks familiar.
5. Clare Bell
Didn't recognize by name, but am now Self-Shaming because she wrote the Ratha's Creature books that I LOVED in middle school. Apparently it was a way more popular series than I ever knew (and apparently it got a 5th book in 2008??). Also, I learned that the concept was driven by her own feelings of being the only woman in an all-male engineering department in the late 70s/80s.
6. Jeanne Betancourt
LOVE. The Pony Pals series is her biggest hit, but I most love her for Home Sweet Home and she has several other older teen novels I would still like to read. I also now recognize My name Is Brain Brian, but never wanted to read it as a kid. Apparently she also ghost-wrote a bunch of supplemental Babysitters Club books (the California Diaries and Portraits Collection books).
7. Francesca Lia Block
Weetzie Bat!* But also, damn, I can't believe she shot to super-recognition so fast that she made it into this book on the strength of that novel (3 years old at time of publication) and its first two sequels alone.
*and may other dreamy magical realism style novels that 1000% percent influenced my creative writing style and fanfiction-reading preferences as a teen
8. Nancy Bond
Have read (and own) 2 of hers -- Country of Broken Stone and The Voyage Begun.
9. Malcolm Bosse
Nope - this is one I don't know. Looks like a lot of boy-focused and historical fiction.
10. Patricia Calvert
Horse books. Or maybe more accurately, books about teen girls dealing with stuff that happen to have a horse in them. I've only read her first 3, I guess, but ooh, I didn't realize The Snowbird was her first novel -- now I think it's even cooler that my copy is an inscribed one (albeit not to me). Bonus quote about it! "I hoped that I would be able to communicate to my readers what, over time, had come to be my philosophy -- that no matter how young or how old one is, it is important to be able to say oneself, I am accountable."
11. Alden R. Carter
I vaguely recognize the name; I recall him writing a lot of boy books that never interested me and one 3-star book I read -- Dogwolf (less about dogs or wolves than you might expect, but it was good because it dealt w/ a boy of mixed white & Native American heritage in the present day). Oh, and I think I've read about Sheila's Dying in some other books about teen books.
P.S. WHAT THE HELL is this intro -- "I wrote my first short story at the age of 8: Percy, a retired racehorse, pines to run a final steeplechase. His agreeable owners let him, but Percy -- for all his will to win -- cannot manage to clear the last fence and dies impaled on the sharp pickets. To my astonishment, it made my sister cry."
12. Aidan Chambers
I've heard of him - that dreadfully boring looking Dying to Know You book that I need to remember the name of, because it comes up regularly on lost-book forums as "that book with the goldfish jumping out of a bowl on the cover." Also Postcards from No Man's Land, which I was always mad didn't have or even show facsimiles of real postcards and so refused to read. He's more famous for Breaktime and Dance On My Grave - which I rememeber first hearing about in Lost Masterworks of Young Adult Lit.
13. John Christopher
I have NO idea who this person is. Apparently he writes sci-fi, so.
14. Patricia Clapp
I don't recognize the name, but looking her up, I think I might have read Witches' Children in middle school. One of the lower-producing authors in this collection, it turns out -- only 7 books total, though she did live to an impressive age 91.
15. Bruce Clements
I know the name but not why...oh man. I read his super-boring What Erika Wants in the 2000s, but I recognize him now from Lost Masterworks -- The Treasure of Plunderell Manor and I Tell A Lie Every So Often. I keep looking for his unicorn books and then I remember no, that's Bruce Colville.
16. Brock Cole
THE GOATS ugh I'm done.
17. Pam Conrad
Don't recognize her offhand, but I know the paperback cover of Prairie Songs from the library shelves. Unsure if I read it; if I did, I was probably in elementary school.
18. Caroline B. Cooney
OBVI. Remember when she somehow made my Top Ten Most-Read (non-series) Authors?? Even though I never deliberately set out to read her for any reason other than she was a reliable teller of good tales when I was at the public library in high school and hadn't grabbed enough books for one trip?
19. Barbara Corcoran
LOVE HER for the animal books -- Wolf At The Door, Sasha My Friend, A Horse Named Sky -- but she wrote a bunch more general teen & children's books that look amazing. I haven't read even a tenth of her bibliography (about 50 books, even though despite a lifelong writing career, she didn't publish a novel until she was in her fifties??) but I want to.
20. Linda Crew
First impression: Who?
After looking her up: BRIDES OF EDEN, SHAME ON U. That was one of the best YA novels from the early 2000s that I actually read when it was new.
I don't think I've read Chidren of the River, but the fact that it was inspired by the stories of a family of Cambodian refugees who "came to pick cherry tomatoes and raspberries" for her family is interesting.
21. Gillian Cross
Oh, yes, of course. Read and/or seen tons from her, again usually not on purpose, but: Born of the Sun, Phoning a Dead Man, Pictures n the Dark, The Great Elephant Chase, The Man Behind the Curtain, Roscoe's Leap
22. Jenny Davis
Sex Ed, a title I'd call forgotten today - except for being in Paperback Crush - but which routinely made the best-of books & lists in the 90s.
23. Peter Dickinson
I recognize him for Eva -- a book I always think is from 2001 instead of 1989, because that's when I read it -- and not much else. However...what an interesting backstory of being born in "what is now Zambia" in 1927! Also, did not know he later married Robin McKinley.
edit: A Bone From a Dry Sea was him too?? I love that, even after all the books about older books I've read & looked up on Goodreads, I can still sometimes be surprised by new connections between who wrote what.
24. Berlie Doherty
No idea who this is, but dang! Young Me would have loved Spellhorn.
25. Thomas J. Dygard
WILDERNESS PERIL. And, apparently, a lot of dull-looking sports books. Wilderness Peril is great, though.
26. Jeannette Eyerly
I have never read anything by her, which is a shame, beacuse I just recently found her name (upon realizing I actually own A Girl Like Me) and I wanna read everything she ever wrote. Just all kinds of 60s & 70s Problem Novels, including several about teen pregnancy and/or marriage (marriage plots are always so INTERESTING to me, because the one thing characters can never do in YA these days is live together, and that's the part that interests me -- setting up your first household with a guy, having only recently done it myself), and at least a couple proper romances in the mix too.
P.S. She died on her 100th birthday. Incredible.
27. Paul Fleischman
The name sounds vaguely familiar...but no, it is not.* The vaguely familiar name is his father's, Sid Fleischman, responsible for The Whipping Boy (meh) and Jim Ugly (woo!).
*eta: wait, yes it is! He wrote Mind's Eye, which I don't remember but apparently hated, though I'm not sure why -- it looks kinda interesting. He also apparently won a Newbery, which makes it even more incredible to me that neither his name nor his award-winning book ring any bells.
[eta 2: ohhh, a poetry book. yeah I super-resent both nonfiction and poems for taking attention and award space away from books you read for the plot. Give them their own categories already. Because they can be good but will literally never be better than every novel published in a given year.]
28. Michael French
No idea who this is, and no wonder -- that's a lot of boring boy/sports/soldier books.
29. Nancy Garden
I know her, is she Annie on my Mind or one of those books I read in 9th grade - Lark in the Morning, maybe? *looks her up* OR BOTH! And Peace, O River besides. Wow, can't believe I never realized those were all the same person.
30. Leon Garfield
I read a lot about him in Lost Masterworks but honestly I don't even think I've ever seen one of his (dozens of) books.
31. Patricia Lee Gauch
Never heard of her -- though I may have seen Morelli's Game mentioned somewhere; it's familiar but IDK what it's about -- but it seems like she mostly ended up writing picture books & books for younger readers.
32. Jan Greenberg
THE PIG-OUT BLUES, YEAH! It looks like the 7 teen books listed here are all she ever wrote before moving permanently to nonfiction, but I kind of wanna read them all because that book is one of my enduring faves.
P.S. holy crap, her Goodreads photo is the same one used in this book (1993 at the latest). Love a woman who refuses to publicly age.
33. Patricia Hermes
I don't recognize anything she's done, though it looks to be mostly for younger readers, like 13-14 tops, but the covers of Nobody's Fault and You Shouldn't Have To Say Goodbye look vaguely familiar from the library.
Also, apparently she wrote several novelizations, including of My Girl, l and more recently contributed to The Horse Diaries, a series elementary school me would have LOVED if it had existed. Frankly it's hard to resist now; only the "long series" aspect keeps me from buying it.
34. Jamake Highwater
I'd never heard of this man, but I looked him up on Wikipedia and HOLY CRIPES that's a scandal -- dude passed himself off as Native American and got a bunch of acclaim and grant money for telling stories based on his supposed heritage in several iterations, only to be Found Out in 2001 as a plain ol' regular white man.
Extra embarrassing given that he was supposed to be one of the literally three non-white authors they were able to rustle up for this edition (the editor specifically apologized in the intro for not being able to come up with more, pointing to a lack of diversity within the publishing world and how that should change).
35. Douglas Hill
"Who?"
Answer: science fiction, so moving on.
36. Will Hobbs
YEAH! Now this guy, this guy is an example of how to write boy books that appeal to all genders, or at least to this fussy girl: mostly by setting them in the great outdoors, maybe throwing in some animals, maybe featuring modern-day Native American characters whose heritage has some impact on the story. We read Bearstone for class in 6th grade and it was probably one of the best novels ever assigned in school. Not that those were in short supply prior to high school, when we were still reading juvenile as opposed to adult literature, but I just want to celebrate this one. I quickly followed it with Beardance and Kokopelli's Flute, and later read Wild Man Island and Jackie's Wild Seattle, though the latter two did not have the same charm.
37. Felice Holman
Not familiar to me in the slightest, nothing very compelling-looking.
38. Monica Hughes
Didn't recognize the name, but looking her up I recognize Keeper of the Isis Light from Lost Masterworks. Aaaand just learned she's also responsible for the nightmare-fuel-scene-including post-apocalyptic novel The Crystal Drop.[nightmare fuel spoiler]*of finding their dog butchered for meat in the freezer
39. Mollie Hunter
I've seen this name on my Goodreads account; is she the one who wrote Cat, Herself? *update* She is! And a lot of other rather good-looking Scottish books. See, this is why I can help people find so many lost books -- I spend hours and hours just randomly looking at covers, sorted into various categories but most often by reading year, on GR.
Bonus: "A Sound of Chariots" was "largely autobiographical," and more of her life circumstances were drawn on for the aforementioned book and The Third Eye.
40. Adrienne Jones
Who?
Update: wow, some interesting-looking stuff in here. Thunderbird Pass isn't even ON Goodreads, but it's "set in the High Sierras" so I'm there, and Wild Voyageur: Story of a Canadian Goose has no detail on there but that sounds good from the title alone. I'd like to investigate more of her works. I see a lot of contemporary and autobiographical accounts mentioned in her (mostly older) work.
41. Diana Wynne Jones
A woman who is far more famous to the public than to me; I know her name but nothing she's done calls to me. Childhood Me was always really annoyed at Dogsbody for sounding like a dog book but featuring a dumb-as-heck concept of, like, canine spirituality?? I refused to get farther than the cover.
That said, the childhood part of her bio -- which features being complained about by Arthur Ransome and her 3-year-old sister being smacked by Beatrix Potter and her generally coming to the conclusion that children's authors do not like children -- is amazing.
42. Annette Curtis Klause
No idea who she is, but I definitely remember seeing hilariously trashy-looking vampire novel The Silver Kiss on library shelves and possibly Scholastic book orders. Then as now, I had no interest in vampire romance, thanks.
(okay wait, how did she get into this book with only TWO novels to her name -- one of which was published the same year as this book? Was The Silver Kiss truly the Twilight of 1990??? ...I guess it does have 17,000 ratings on Goodreads; okay, that's pretty impressive for a 90s book that didn't win major awards)
43. Ron Koertge
Vaguely sounds familiar, but not strongly. I do remember seeing Stoner & Spaz and Margaux With An X, but not sure if in library or only titles online. Ohh, there we go - most familiar to me from Confess-O-Rama, a book that has a truly weird amount of acclaim for something that seemed super-average and of objectively minimal literary merit to me.
edit: wait wait wait, Mariposa Blues is about "returning to California for the summer to help train and race thoroughbreds"??? I've heard that title; I always assumed it was a football book. Jeez. This is like the exact same thing that happened to me w/ Taming the Star Runner, which I thought was about track & field.
44. E.L. Konigsburg
A legend in the children's book world -- or so I thought; husband had never heard of her OR The View From Saturday OR The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler?? actually maybe it's a Him problem -- but has bored me each time I've tried to read her work. (though I never tired The Mixed-Up Files. Unless I read it and can't remember.)
P.S. Dying that her first rule of writing is "write clearly," because my whole problem with The View From Saturday was that 11-year-old Me had little idea what the heck was going on, and that's mostly why I hated it.
45. Louise Lawrence
Who? ...okay definitely not my genre.
46. Ursula K. Le Guin
Also not my genre, despite her super-fame -- except for my beloved Catwings books!
47. Sonia Levitin
Definitely. Lotta Jewish identity stuff, right? I immediately thought of Strange Relations, which frankly I found annoying and I think that's the only one of hers I read as a result, but since that was published in 2007 I am genuinely surprised to realize how long she's been writing. I bet her older and/or children's books are better. Oh -- and I definitely have heard of Incident at Loring Groves. But *I* really wanna read Reigning Cats and Dogs.
48. Lois Lowry
DUH. Good lord, I can't even count how many books this woman as published. Though I maintain that Number the Stars is her crowning achievement and The Giver is boring as hell.
Interesting Fact: A Summer to Die is the fictionalized retelling of what happened to her sister IRL.
49. Stephen Manes
Who? Looks like a slew of goofy, mostly elementary-age fare that would never have interested me, plus one random Super Serious novel about abortion under a pen name (Un-Birthday).
...weirdly fetching author photo [in this book], though.
50. Ann M. Martin
DUH. I've read a decent number of her books too, even outside the BSC. A Dog's Life is my favorite, naturally.
51. Carolyn Meyer
She's pretty well known still, right? Does a lot of books about royal women -- Doomed Queen Anne, The Royal Diaries, Young Royals? She apparently hadn't yet gotten started on that field when this was published, but I love how much she talks about the research she does in this bio. And somehow I totally forgot she also wrote my beloved horse/ranch book The Luck of Texas McCoy!
Wild Rover looks good as well: When her convict father, on the run from the law, takes fifteen-year-old Andy into a remote wilderness area where they must fight to stay alive, he tries to explain to her what prison was like and they both make some shocking discoveries about each other.
52. Betty Miles
Ooh, a brand new addition to my name recognition bank! I'm kind of sorry I got rid of Just The Beginning now, because the more I look into her the more I think she has some really pleasant middle grade novels to explore.
53. Louise Moeri
Who?
...oh, only AUTHOR OF YOUR ENDURING FAVE A Horse For X.Y.Z.! Plus less-impressive but still good Save Queen of Sheba.
54. Shirley Rousseau Murphy
Who?
Oh wow, she wrote a lot -- mostly fantasy, but some of her earlier books are realistic animal fiction, including two horse books, one of which currently lies on my shelves unread! White Ghost Summer.
55. Beverly Naidoo
Wow, she's so obscure Goodreads doesn't even have most of her work. No wonder I haven't heard of her. Anyway, that's a shame, because she sounds like a super-socially-conscious activist -- of the "born white in South Africa in the 40s, gradually realized hella racial injustice" variety -- who also wrote about it. Her first novel is based on something that happened to the children of her nanny growing up.
56. Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
WELL OF COURSE. Shiloh is her masterpiece, but I've read so many of hers: Sang Spell, Jade Green, A String of Chances; The Year of the Gopher; Blizzard's Wake; Faith, Hope and Ivy June; and Send No Blessings as well and have generally enjoyed them. She's a modern classic. Never did get into the Alice books, though.
57. Suzanne Newton
Don't know her, but looks like some standard "good" teen & children's fare from the 70s & 80s. Where Are You When I Need You? appeals to me.
[EDIT: okay I somehow skipped a number in here and I refuse to re-number them all. just go with it.]
59. Jean Davies Okimoto
Molly By Any Other Name was out of my mouth before I finished reading the name. It was a pretty memorable book concept from a pretty memorable last name.
60. Francine Pascal
Do I even need to say words, or will the letters SVH do?
(though as I always have to add: I always preferred the middle school series. I tried one book from the original high school series and was like, "who are these BORING WEIRDOS with their BASICALLY-ADULT PROBLEMS" -- I was probably 12 or 13 when I tried it -- "and WHERE ARE MY FAMILIAR AND BELOVED TWINS."
61. P.J. Petersen
Ooh! I just read rob&sara.com last year, which he half-authored; I think I read White Water as a kid, but that's as far as I know him.
62. K.M. Peyton
HORSES. All the horses. Possibly the longest-running horse-book career of any author ever; to have started in the golden age of the sixties and maintained entries in that genre all the way into the 2000s is NOT easy. (also wow, she's 91!)
...and I had NO idea Fly-By-Night had a sequel, let alone 4!
63. Tamora Pierce
But of course. One of the few fantasy authors I have read and love, mostly due to their high horse & other animal content in the Tortall books.
64. Philip Pullman
I realize His Dark Materials hadn't been published in 1993, but seeing his name here is still kind of like seeing J.K. Rowling's. Like, this dude is on a whole other plane of existence from your typical young-adult author.
Weirdly, I didn't realize he was writing before that series or how crazy prolific he is, although skimming the list in this book I do recognize The Ruby in the Smoke and Shadow in the North; what cool titles! Always vaguely appealed to me but also seemed just a little too long and Grown-Up for me to try.
65. Ann Rinaldi
AMERICAN HISTORY QUEEN. Another who made my top 10 Most Read Authors, having read 10 or 11 of her works, though I'd still like to read the rest of her early contemporary teen novels. I remain baffled by how her name fell out of public recognition. Y'all didn't see a thousand copies of Wolf By The Ears back in the day??
66. Willo Davis Roberts
I didn't know she wrote teen books -- she was a fave in elementary school for The Girl in the Window NO, RS, THAT WAS WILMA YEO AND YOU KNOW THAT. Willo is your queen of the following: Babysitting is a Dangerous Job, Sugar Isn't Everything, less-awesome Don't Hurt Laurie!, that one book you never got around to reading (The Girl with the Silver Eyes), and apparently, a STUNNING amount of pulpy adult mystery thrillers. Plus a few early-2000s middle grade books I wouldn't mind checking out, now that they're charming again instead of "just kids' books" like they were when I was a teen.
67. Colby Rodowsky
Very surprised to see her name; I didn't think she'd written a ton, but she has over 20 by this point. I only read Lucy Peale, which I gave 3 stars and don't remember, but I'd revisit it. I actually just saw Remembering Mog at a thrift store yesterday, though it was so short I couldn't bring myself to spend two bucks on it. Lots of interesting titles here. I don't know Evy-Ivy-Over, but now I want to read it solely because it's SO cool to me when authors write a children's book and then write a YA sequel (Julie's Daughter). Especially when they're published many years apart -- 14 in this case!
68. Margaret I. Rostkowski
My love for After the Dancing Days is quite large.
69. Lois Ruby
Don't know her, but DYING that she apparently became known as "The Pig Lady of Kansas" after writing The Pig-Out Inn. Which honestly looks really good, as do most of her books. Lots of ghost stories, something that's been in short supply from this collection of authors so far.
70. Cynthia Rylant
This is another author who seems to have been super-well-known once without my being aware of it. I thought I only knew her from Every Living Thing, which was pretty sad and not great as far as animal story collection go, but now I realize she also did Missing May (though not sure I read it) and the Henry & Mudge books, which I devoured as a first grader. She's published a ridiculous amount, albeit mostly for children with very few books about teens in the mix.
71. Judith St. George
I think her name might have come up in that Sixteen collection of short stories Gallo also compiled; otherwise, I don't know her. Except I do recognize Call Me Margo because it's on the Inappropriate Student/Teacher Relationships in YA list (do I know every single book on that list? MAYBE.)
What's Happening To My Junior Year? looks absolutely wild, though. "Steppie's life turns upside down when her mother converts their basement into a pool hall for troubled teenagers and then decides to enter the national pool players' championship herself." What IS happening?? Starting with, who goes by the nickname Steppie??
72. Otto R. Salassi
Who? Also, wow, is he truly that obscure or did he really only write three books ever and then disappear? [edit: oh, he died in 1993. Pretty young too, not even 55. From liver disease, according to this fantastic website that gave me answers when truly I was expecting to find none.]
73. Pamela Sargent
I don't know her, and it looks like she was all sci fi.
74. Marjorie Weinman Sharmat
She was definitely featured in Sixteen. I remember the trivia bit that she has a famous musician son. But I'd never heard of her before that, nor have I read any of her books. Even though she's published over 100. WHAT?? Oh - mosty series books and/or books for young children.
75. Jan Slepian
I didn't recognize her by name, but I remember seeing The Broccoli Tapes around -- Scholastic book orders and classroom libraries, most likely; I don't recall it with library stickers. I don't know if I read it, or if it was one of those books I meant to read but never did.
76. Gary Soto
I read Accidental Love (it was fine, 3 stars), but otherwise I don't know him. Apparently he's super prolific with heavy focus on characters of Mexican heritage like himself.
77. Ivan Southall
Who?? Looks like a lotta boy books.
78. Elizabeth George Speare
Well, of course. For someone who published relatively little in their life -- just 6 books total! -- the density of critical claim and awards between them is ridiculous. Every book written for children/young adults was a knockout: Sign of the Beaver, Witch of Blackbird Pond, The Bronze Bow, Calico Captive. And then the one adult book no one's heard of, including me (The Prospering) + apparently a random nonfiction book on colonial life.
79. R.L. Stine
Like Pullman, I knid of feel like Stine is on a whole different plane of existence. Goosebumps hadn't started yet when this book was published; Fear Street was 4 years old, and the dude STILL already had 50 titles to his name within a span of about 12 years. I can't even fathom how rich he must be today.
80. Joyce Sweeney
I haven't read her, but Center Line looks like a good read - I added it to my TBR a few months ago. I thought I'd read Waiting for June too, but turns out I just...somehow transposed that title onto my memory of the cover for Dear Baby Girl by Orcutt, also about a pregnant high schooler and published around the same time.
81. Theodore Taylor
Ah, Old Reliable. Answer to many a lost-book search about books people read in middle school (usually The Cay), though I did not read it. I like him because of animals -- The Trouble With Tuck, Lord of the Kill, The Hostage (what Free Willy is based on), plus Walking Up a Rainbow and The Bomb.
82. Susan Terris
I didn't recognize her, but -- BABY-SNATCHER!! That's why I know that name. She wrote a lot of others too, but none I've heard of.
83. Joan D. Vinge
No idea who she is; seems she mostly writes for adults and in sci fi and/or fantasy?
84. Robert Westall
Blitzcat? *checks & nods* Blitzcat. I know I read that one, but I don't remember ANYTHING about it and I must reread it one day.
85. Ellen Emerson White
Ooh, yes, the President's Daughter quartet, of which I only ever read book 3, and the "rewritten for 2008" version at that. And a handful of other books I've read or come across over the years. Ooh, and still publishing?? Now I wanna read middle grade dog book Webster: Tale of an Outlaw asap. That's right, I remember now -- she's also "Nick Edwards" of the Santa Paws books.
86. Brenda Wilkinson
The lone Black author in this collection -- although I'm sure there were more in the first book, $50 on Walter Dean Meyers being one of them -- and I have never heard of her. Her bio is interesting -- namely the mention of being honored for the publication of her first book at a library that she wasn't allowed to enter as a child because it was "whites only."
87. Margaret Willey
Oh, Facing the Music! The one that I am more than halfway convinced actually features a young Ellen Pompeo as the cover model, not just a lookalike. I would not have thought her a famous name from that, but okay. I wish her bio talked a bit more about her books, since I see Goodreads is not in a mood to tell me a whit about her her other titles for teens...
88. Virginia Euwer Wolff
Make Lemonaaaaade! Also, I have grown weirdly fonder of her adult novel Rated PG in my memory than I felt when I read it; wondering if it uoght to be 4 stars now. None of her other teen/children's books outside the verse trilogy appeal to me at all. Though I will always remember an excerpt of The Mozart Season being used on a standardized test. One I scored, or one I actually took? LET IT BE A MYSTERY.
89. Hilma Wolitzer
I honestly don't know who this is, and have never heard of her work. But apparently, she's the mother of Meg Wolitzer!
90. Phyllis Anderson Wood
Never heard of her, but she looks to be very much in the line of vintage teen romances - the really distinctive kind that look exactly like mass market romances, but skinnier and with younger main characters. The Song of the Shaggy Canary sounds incredible, honestly.
An eighteen-year-old divorcee with a baby and a young veteran hurt by the war and a broken engagement want friendship without commitment, but find themselves becoming committed to each other.
======================
Thank you for coming to my book talk. I have no idea how I am going to condense or generalize my thoughts for a Goodreads review, so this was a fun exercise in getting all my flail out. Also a good reference for future me.
If you need a quick refresher: this book is the second edition/group of authors deemed, by a council of librarians and other youth lit specialists, to be among the most notable/influential and still-active names writing for young adults, circa the early 90s. Given how mega-famous some of these names are now versus how totally forgotten others are, it remains incredible to me that they once would have all had similar name recognition. And while the list is limited to authors who were willing to submit a 2-page autobiography, it also remains incredible to me that some of the older names were not among the first 87, listed in the first book, to be chosen in the late 80s.
You can check the book out yourself to read it on Open Library, but here's a snapshot of the table of contents. How many do YOU recognize??
THE LIST
Starting Stats
Recognized unprompted: 49
Recognized in some fashion after looking them up: +16
Had never heard of: 24
The List, With Commentary
1. C.S. Adler
Of course! That Horse Whiskey! and a whole lot o' other books, many featuring animals. Good-bye, Pink Pig was featured in Paperback Crush, I believe, but I haven't read that one. I HAVE read Not Just a Summer Crush and Kiss The Clown. I just now realized she also wrote Carly's Buck, which nicely traumatized me in middle school, and have been meaning to read her other horse books. I have One Unhappy Horse a.k.a. Saving Dove in a box somewhere...
2. Vivien Alcock
I've read her. An elephant book? something By Night? Travelers By Night, there we go! But nothing else, and until now I did not know she was married to Leon Garfield, also featured in this collection.
3. Lynne Reid Banks
Of course, the Indian in the Cupboard series. Which I don't remember the details of at all, but it was popular in elementary school, and I remember enjoying it too.
4. Marion Dane Bauer
YUP: she's been Minnesota local for most of my life, even though apparently she wasn't born here and didn't arrive until later. I read a bunch of hers -- A Question of Trust, Like Mother Like Daughter, Touch The Moon, a Dear America diary set in MN, Runt, and the lovely A Dream of Queens and Castles. Possibly Ghost Eye way back in elementary school; that creepy ass white cat on the cover looks familiar.
5. Clare Bell
Didn't recognize by name, but am now Self-Shaming because she wrote the Ratha's Creature books that I LOVED in middle school. Apparently it was a way more popular series than I ever knew (and apparently it got a 5th book in 2008??). Also, I learned that the concept was driven by her own feelings of being the only woman in an all-male engineering department in the late 70s/80s.
6. Jeanne Betancourt
LOVE. The Pony Pals series is her biggest hit, but I most love her for Home Sweet Home and she has several other older teen novels I would still like to read. I also now recognize My name Is Brain Brian, but never wanted to read it as a kid. Apparently she also ghost-wrote a bunch of supplemental Babysitters Club books (the California Diaries and Portraits Collection books).
7. Francesca Lia Block
Weetzie Bat!* But also, damn, I can't believe she shot to super-recognition so fast that she made it into this book on the strength of that novel (3 years old at time of publication) and its first two sequels alone.
*and may other dreamy magical realism style novels that 1000% percent influenced my creative writing style and fanfiction-reading preferences as a teen
8. Nancy Bond
Have read (and own) 2 of hers -- Country of Broken Stone and The Voyage Begun.
9. Malcolm Bosse
Nope - this is one I don't know. Looks like a lot of boy-focused and historical fiction.
10. Patricia Calvert
Horse books. Or maybe more accurately, books about teen girls dealing with stuff that happen to have a horse in them. I've only read her first 3, I guess, but ooh, I didn't realize The Snowbird was her first novel -- now I think it's even cooler that my copy is an inscribed one (albeit not to me). Bonus quote about it! "I hoped that I would be able to communicate to my readers what, over time, had come to be my philosophy -- that no matter how young or how old one is, it is important to be able to say oneself, I am accountable."
11. Alden R. Carter
I vaguely recognize the name; I recall him writing a lot of boy books that never interested me and one 3-star book I read -- Dogwolf (less about dogs or wolves than you might expect, but it was good because it dealt w/ a boy of mixed white & Native American heritage in the present day). Oh, and I think I've read about Sheila's Dying in some other books about teen books.
P.S. WHAT THE HELL is this intro -- "I wrote my first short story at the age of 8: Percy, a retired racehorse, pines to run a final steeplechase. His agreeable owners let him, but Percy -- for all his will to win -- cannot manage to clear the last fence and dies impaled on the sharp pickets. To my astonishment, it made my sister cry."
12. Aidan Chambers
I've heard of him - that dreadfully boring looking Dying to Know You book that I need to remember the name of, because it comes up regularly on lost-book forums as "that book with the goldfish jumping out of a bowl on the cover." Also Postcards from No Man's Land, which I was always mad didn't have or even show facsimiles of real postcards and so refused to read. He's more famous for Breaktime and Dance On My Grave - which I rememeber first hearing about in Lost Masterworks of Young Adult Lit.
13. John Christopher
I have NO idea who this person is. Apparently he writes sci-fi, so.
14. Patricia Clapp
I don't recognize the name, but looking her up, I think I might have read Witches' Children in middle school. One of the lower-producing authors in this collection, it turns out -- only 7 books total, though she did live to an impressive age 91.
15. Bruce Clements
I know the name but not why...oh man. I read his super-boring What Erika Wants in the 2000s, but I recognize him now from Lost Masterworks -- The Treasure of Plunderell Manor and I Tell A Lie Every So Often. I keep looking for his unicorn books and then I remember no, that's Bruce Colville.
16. Brock Cole
THE GOATS ugh I'm done.
17. Pam Conrad
Don't recognize her offhand, but I know the paperback cover of Prairie Songs from the library shelves. Unsure if I read it; if I did, I was probably in elementary school.
18. Caroline B. Cooney
OBVI. Remember when she somehow made my Top Ten Most-Read (non-series) Authors?? Even though I never deliberately set out to read her for any reason other than she was a reliable teller of good tales when I was at the public library in high school and hadn't grabbed enough books for one trip?
19. Barbara Corcoran
LOVE HER for the animal books -- Wolf At The Door, Sasha My Friend, A Horse Named Sky -- but she wrote a bunch more general teen & children's books that look amazing. I haven't read even a tenth of her bibliography (about 50 books, even though despite a lifelong writing career, she didn't publish a novel until she was in her fifties??) but I want to.
20. Linda Crew
First impression: Who?
After looking her up: BRIDES OF EDEN, SHAME ON U. That was one of the best YA novels from the early 2000s that I actually read when it was new.
I don't think I've read Chidren of the River, but the fact that it was inspired by the stories of a family of Cambodian refugees who "came to pick cherry tomatoes and raspberries" for her family is interesting.
21. Gillian Cross
Oh, yes, of course. Read and/or seen tons from her, again usually not on purpose, but: Born of the Sun, Phoning a Dead Man, Pictures n the Dark, The Great Elephant Chase, The Man Behind the Curtain, Roscoe's Leap
22. Jenny Davis
Sex Ed, a title I'd call forgotten today - except for being in Paperback Crush - but which routinely made the best-of books & lists in the 90s.
23. Peter Dickinson
I recognize him for Eva -- a book I always think is from 2001 instead of 1989, because that's when I read it -- and not much else. However...what an interesting backstory of being born in "what is now Zambia" in 1927! Also, did not know he later married Robin McKinley.
edit: A Bone From a Dry Sea was him too?? I love that, even after all the books about older books I've read & looked up on Goodreads, I can still sometimes be surprised by new connections between who wrote what.
24. Berlie Doherty
No idea who this is, but dang! Young Me would have loved Spellhorn.
25. Thomas J. Dygard
WILDERNESS PERIL. And, apparently, a lot of dull-looking sports books. Wilderness Peril is great, though.
26. Jeannette Eyerly
I have never read anything by her, which is a shame, beacuse I just recently found her name (upon realizing I actually own A Girl Like Me) and I wanna read everything she ever wrote. Just all kinds of 60s & 70s Problem Novels, including several about teen pregnancy and/or marriage (marriage plots are always so INTERESTING to me, because the one thing characters can never do in YA these days is live together, and that's the part that interests me -- setting up your first household with a guy, having only recently done it myself), and at least a couple proper romances in the mix too.
P.S. She died on her 100th birthday. Incredible.
27. Paul Fleischman
The name sounds vaguely familiar...but no, it is not.* The vaguely familiar name is his father's, Sid Fleischman, responsible for The Whipping Boy (meh) and Jim Ugly (woo!).
*eta: wait, yes it is! He wrote Mind's Eye, which I don't remember but apparently hated, though I'm not sure why -- it looks kinda interesting. He also apparently won a Newbery, which makes it even more incredible to me that neither his name nor his award-winning book ring any bells.
[eta 2: ohhh, a poetry book. yeah I super-resent both nonfiction and poems for taking attention and award space away from books you read for the plot. Give them their own categories already. Because they can be good but will literally never be better than every novel published in a given year.]
28. Michael French
No idea who this is, and no wonder -- that's a lot of boring boy/sports/soldier books.
29. Nancy Garden
I know her, is she Annie on my Mind or one of those books I read in 9th grade - Lark in the Morning, maybe? *looks her up* OR BOTH! And Peace, O River besides. Wow, can't believe I never realized those were all the same person.
30. Leon Garfield
I read a lot about him in Lost Masterworks but honestly I don't even think I've ever seen one of his (dozens of) books.
31. Patricia Lee Gauch
Never heard of her -- though I may have seen Morelli's Game mentioned somewhere; it's familiar but IDK what it's about -- but it seems like she mostly ended up writing picture books & books for younger readers.
32. Jan Greenberg
THE PIG-OUT BLUES, YEAH! It looks like the 7 teen books listed here are all she ever wrote before moving permanently to nonfiction, but I kind of wanna read them all because that book is one of my enduring faves.
P.S. holy crap, her Goodreads photo is the same one used in this book (1993 at the latest). Love a woman who refuses to publicly age.
33. Patricia Hermes
I don't recognize anything she's done, though it looks to be mostly for younger readers, like 13-14 tops, but the covers of Nobody's Fault and You Shouldn't Have To Say Goodbye look vaguely familiar from the library.
Also, apparently she wrote several novelizations, including of My Girl, l and more recently contributed to The Horse Diaries, a series elementary school me would have LOVED if it had existed. Frankly it's hard to resist now; only the "long series" aspect keeps me from buying it.
34. Jamake Highwater
I'd never heard of this man, but I looked him up on Wikipedia and HOLY CRIPES that's a scandal -- dude passed himself off as Native American and got a bunch of acclaim and grant money for telling stories based on his supposed heritage in several iterations, only to be Found Out in 2001 as a plain ol' regular white man.
Extra embarrassing given that he was supposed to be one of the literally three non-white authors they were able to rustle up for this edition (the editor specifically apologized in the intro for not being able to come up with more, pointing to a lack of diversity within the publishing world and how that should change).
35. Douglas Hill
"Who?"
Answer: science fiction, so moving on.
36. Will Hobbs
YEAH! Now this guy, this guy is an example of how to write boy books that appeal to all genders, or at least to this fussy girl: mostly by setting them in the great outdoors, maybe throwing in some animals, maybe featuring modern-day Native American characters whose heritage has some impact on the story. We read Bearstone for class in 6th grade and it was probably one of the best novels ever assigned in school. Not that those were in short supply prior to high school, when we were still reading juvenile as opposed to adult literature, but I just want to celebrate this one. I quickly followed it with Beardance and Kokopelli's Flute, and later read Wild Man Island and Jackie's Wild Seattle, though the latter two did not have the same charm.
37. Felice Holman
Not familiar to me in the slightest, nothing very compelling-looking.
38. Monica Hughes
Didn't recognize the name, but looking her up I recognize Keeper of the Isis Light from Lost Masterworks. Aaaand just learned she's also responsible for the nightmare-fuel-scene-including post-apocalyptic novel The Crystal Drop.[nightmare fuel spoiler]*of finding their dog butchered for meat in the freezer
39. Mollie Hunter
I've seen this name on my Goodreads account; is she the one who wrote Cat, Herself? *update* She is! And a lot of other rather good-looking Scottish books. See, this is why I can help people find so many lost books -- I spend hours and hours just randomly looking at covers, sorted into various categories but most often by reading year, on GR.
Bonus: "A Sound of Chariots" was "largely autobiographical," and more of her life circumstances were drawn on for the aforementioned book and The Third Eye.
40. Adrienne Jones
Who?
Update: wow, some interesting-looking stuff in here. Thunderbird Pass isn't even ON Goodreads, but it's "set in the High Sierras" so I'm there, and Wild Voyageur: Story of a Canadian Goose has no detail on there but that sounds good from the title alone. I'd like to investigate more of her works. I see a lot of contemporary and autobiographical accounts mentioned in her (mostly older) work.
41. Diana Wynne Jones
A woman who is far more famous to the public than to me; I know her name but nothing she's done calls to me. Childhood Me was always really annoyed at Dogsbody for sounding like a dog book but featuring a dumb-as-heck concept of, like, canine spirituality?? I refused to get farther than the cover.
That said, the childhood part of her bio -- which features being complained about by Arthur Ransome and her 3-year-old sister being smacked by Beatrix Potter and her generally coming to the conclusion that children's authors do not like children -- is amazing.
42. Annette Curtis Klause
No idea who she is, but I definitely remember seeing hilariously trashy-looking vampire novel The Silver Kiss on library shelves and possibly Scholastic book orders. Then as now, I had no interest in vampire romance, thanks.
(okay wait, how did she get into this book with only TWO novels to her name -- one of which was published the same year as this book? Was The Silver Kiss truly the Twilight of 1990??? ...I guess it does have 17,000 ratings on Goodreads; okay, that's pretty impressive for a 90s book that didn't win major awards)
43. Ron Koertge
Vaguely sounds familiar, but not strongly. I do remember seeing Stoner & Spaz and Margaux With An X, but not sure if in library or only titles online. Ohh, there we go - most familiar to me from Confess-O-Rama, a book that has a truly weird amount of acclaim for something that seemed super-average and of objectively minimal literary merit to me.
edit: wait wait wait, Mariposa Blues is about "returning to California for the summer to help train and race thoroughbreds"??? I've heard that title; I always assumed it was a football book. Jeez. This is like the exact same thing that happened to me w/ Taming the Star Runner, which I thought was about track & field.
44. E.L. Konigsburg
A legend in the children's book world -- or so I thought; husband had never heard of her OR The View From Saturday OR The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler?? actually maybe it's a Him problem -- but has bored me each time I've tried to read her work. (though I never tired The Mixed-Up Files. Unless I read it and can't remember.)
P.S. Dying that her first rule of writing is "write clearly," because my whole problem with The View From Saturday was that 11-year-old Me had little idea what the heck was going on, and that's mostly why I hated it.
45. Louise Lawrence
Who? ...okay definitely not my genre.
46. Ursula K. Le Guin
Also not my genre, despite her super-fame -- except for my beloved Catwings books!
47. Sonia Levitin
Definitely. Lotta Jewish identity stuff, right? I immediately thought of Strange Relations, which frankly I found annoying and I think that's the only one of hers I read as a result, but since that was published in 2007 I am genuinely surprised to realize how long she's been writing. I bet her older and/or children's books are better. Oh -- and I definitely have heard of Incident at Loring Groves. But *I* really wanna read Reigning Cats and Dogs.
48. Lois Lowry
DUH. Good lord, I can't even count how many books this woman as published. Though I maintain that Number the Stars is her crowning achievement and The Giver is boring as hell.
Interesting Fact: A Summer to Die is the fictionalized retelling of what happened to her sister IRL.
49. Stephen Manes
Who? Looks like a slew of goofy, mostly elementary-age fare that would never have interested me, plus one random Super Serious novel about abortion under a pen name (Un-Birthday).
...weirdly fetching author photo [in this book], though.
50. Ann M. Martin
DUH. I've read a decent number of her books too, even outside the BSC. A Dog's Life is my favorite, naturally.
51. Carolyn Meyer
She's pretty well known still, right? Does a lot of books about royal women -- Doomed Queen Anne, The Royal Diaries, Young Royals? She apparently hadn't yet gotten started on that field when this was published, but I love how much she talks about the research she does in this bio. And somehow I totally forgot she also wrote my beloved horse/ranch book The Luck of Texas McCoy!
Wild Rover looks good as well: When her convict father, on the run from the law, takes fifteen-year-old Andy into a remote wilderness area where they must fight to stay alive, he tries to explain to her what prison was like and they both make some shocking discoveries about each other.
52. Betty Miles
Ooh, a brand new addition to my name recognition bank! I'm kind of sorry I got rid of Just The Beginning now, because the more I look into her the more I think she has some really pleasant middle grade novels to explore.
53. Louise Moeri
Who?
...oh, only AUTHOR OF YOUR ENDURING FAVE A Horse For X.Y.Z.! Plus less-impressive but still good Save Queen of Sheba.
54. Shirley Rousseau Murphy
Who?
Oh wow, she wrote a lot -- mostly fantasy, but some of her earlier books are realistic animal fiction, including two horse books, one of which currently lies on my shelves unread! White Ghost Summer.
55. Beverly Naidoo
Wow, she's so obscure Goodreads doesn't even have most of her work. No wonder I haven't heard of her. Anyway, that's a shame, because she sounds like a super-socially-conscious activist -- of the "born white in South Africa in the 40s, gradually realized hella racial injustice" variety -- who also wrote about it. Her first novel is based on something that happened to the children of her nanny growing up.
56. Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
WELL OF COURSE. Shiloh is her masterpiece, but I've read so many of hers: Sang Spell, Jade Green, A String of Chances; The Year of the Gopher; Blizzard's Wake; Faith, Hope and Ivy June; and Send No Blessings as well and have generally enjoyed them. She's a modern classic. Never did get into the Alice books, though.
57. Suzanne Newton
Don't know her, but looks like some standard "good" teen & children's fare from the 70s & 80s. Where Are You When I Need You? appeals to me.
[EDIT: okay I somehow skipped a number in here and I refuse to re-number them all. just go with it.]
59. Jean Davies Okimoto
Molly By Any Other Name was out of my mouth before I finished reading the name. It was a pretty memorable book concept from a pretty memorable last name.
60. Francine Pascal
Do I even need to say words, or will the letters SVH do?
(though as I always have to add: I always preferred the middle school series. I tried one book from the original high school series and was like, "who are these BORING WEIRDOS with their BASICALLY-ADULT PROBLEMS" -- I was probably 12 or 13 when I tried it -- "and WHERE ARE MY FAMILIAR AND BELOVED TWINS."
61. P.J. Petersen
Ooh! I just read rob&sara.com last year, which he half-authored; I think I read White Water as a kid, but that's as far as I know him.
62. K.M. Peyton
HORSES. All the horses. Possibly the longest-running horse-book career of any author ever; to have started in the golden age of the sixties and maintained entries in that genre all the way into the 2000s is NOT easy. (also wow, she's 91!)
...and I had NO idea Fly-By-Night had a sequel, let alone 4!
63. Tamora Pierce
But of course. One of the few fantasy authors I have read and love, mostly due to their high horse & other animal content in the Tortall books.
64. Philip Pullman
I realize His Dark Materials hadn't been published in 1993, but seeing his name here is still kind of like seeing J.K. Rowling's. Like, this dude is on a whole other plane of existence from your typical young-adult author.
Weirdly, I didn't realize he was writing before that series or how crazy prolific he is, although skimming the list in this book I do recognize The Ruby in the Smoke and Shadow in the North; what cool titles! Always vaguely appealed to me but also seemed just a little too long and Grown-Up for me to try.
65. Ann Rinaldi
AMERICAN HISTORY QUEEN. Another who made my top 10 Most Read Authors, having read 10 or 11 of her works, though I'd still like to read the rest of her early contemporary teen novels. I remain baffled by how her name fell out of public recognition. Y'all didn't see a thousand copies of Wolf By The Ears back in the day??
66. Willo Davis Roberts
I didn't know she wrote teen books -- she was a fave in elementary school for The Girl in the Window NO, RS, THAT WAS WILMA YEO AND YOU KNOW THAT. Willo is your queen of the following: Babysitting is a Dangerous Job, Sugar Isn't Everything, less-awesome Don't Hurt Laurie!, that one book you never got around to reading (The Girl with the Silver Eyes), and apparently, a STUNNING amount of pulpy adult mystery thrillers. Plus a few early-2000s middle grade books I wouldn't mind checking out, now that they're charming again instead of "just kids' books" like they were when I was a teen.
67. Colby Rodowsky
Very surprised to see her name; I didn't think she'd written a ton, but she has over 20 by this point. I only read Lucy Peale, which I gave 3 stars and don't remember, but I'd revisit it. I actually just saw Remembering Mog at a thrift store yesterday, though it was so short I couldn't bring myself to spend two bucks on it. Lots of interesting titles here. I don't know Evy-Ivy-Over, but now I want to read it solely because it's SO cool to me when authors write a children's book and then write a YA sequel (Julie's Daughter). Especially when they're published many years apart -- 14 in this case!
68. Margaret I. Rostkowski
My love for After the Dancing Days is quite large.
69. Lois Ruby
Don't know her, but DYING that she apparently became known as "The Pig Lady of Kansas" after writing The Pig-Out Inn. Which honestly looks really good, as do most of her books. Lots of ghost stories, something that's been in short supply from this collection of authors so far.
70. Cynthia Rylant
This is another author who seems to have been super-well-known once without my being aware of it. I thought I only knew her from Every Living Thing, which was pretty sad and not great as far as animal story collection go, but now I realize she also did Missing May (though not sure I read it) and the Henry & Mudge books, which I devoured as a first grader. She's published a ridiculous amount, albeit mostly for children with very few books about teens in the mix.
71. Judith St. George
I think her name might have come up in that Sixteen collection of short stories Gallo also compiled; otherwise, I don't know her. Except I do recognize Call Me Margo because it's on the Inappropriate Student/Teacher Relationships in YA list (do I know every single book on that list? MAYBE.)
What's Happening To My Junior Year? looks absolutely wild, though. "Steppie's life turns upside down when her mother converts their basement into a pool hall for troubled teenagers and then decides to enter the national pool players' championship herself." What IS happening?? Starting with, who goes by the nickname Steppie??
72. Otto R. Salassi
Who? Also, wow, is he truly that obscure or did he really only write three books ever and then disappear? [edit: oh, he died in 1993. Pretty young too, not even 55. From liver disease, according to this fantastic website that gave me answers when truly I was expecting to find none.]
73. Pamela Sargent
I don't know her, and it looks like she was all sci fi.
74. Marjorie Weinman Sharmat
She was definitely featured in Sixteen. I remember the trivia bit that she has a famous musician son. But I'd never heard of her before that, nor have I read any of her books. Even though she's published over 100. WHAT?? Oh - mosty series books and/or books for young children.
75. Jan Slepian
I didn't recognize her by name, but I remember seeing The Broccoli Tapes around -- Scholastic book orders and classroom libraries, most likely; I don't recall it with library stickers. I don't know if I read it, or if it was one of those books I meant to read but never did.
76. Gary Soto
I read Accidental Love (it was fine, 3 stars), but otherwise I don't know him. Apparently he's super prolific with heavy focus on characters of Mexican heritage like himself.
77. Ivan Southall
Who?? Looks like a lotta boy books.
78. Elizabeth George Speare
Well, of course. For someone who published relatively little in their life -- just 6 books total! -- the density of critical claim and awards between them is ridiculous. Every book written for children/young adults was a knockout: Sign of the Beaver, Witch of Blackbird Pond, The Bronze Bow, Calico Captive. And then the one adult book no one's heard of, including me (The Prospering) + apparently a random nonfiction book on colonial life.
79. R.L. Stine
Like Pullman, I knid of feel like Stine is on a whole different plane of existence. Goosebumps hadn't started yet when this book was published; Fear Street was 4 years old, and the dude STILL already had 50 titles to his name within a span of about 12 years. I can't even fathom how rich he must be today.
80. Joyce Sweeney
I haven't read her, but Center Line looks like a good read - I added it to my TBR a few months ago. I thought I'd read Waiting for June too, but turns out I just...somehow transposed that title onto my memory of the cover for Dear Baby Girl by Orcutt, also about a pregnant high schooler and published around the same time.
81. Theodore Taylor
Ah, Old Reliable. Answer to many a lost-book search about books people read in middle school (usually The Cay), though I did not read it. I like him because of animals -- The Trouble With Tuck, Lord of the Kill, The Hostage (what Free Willy is based on), plus Walking Up a Rainbow and The Bomb.
82. Susan Terris
I didn't recognize her, but -- BABY-SNATCHER!! That's why I know that name. She wrote a lot of others too, but none I've heard of.
83. Joan D. Vinge
No idea who she is; seems she mostly writes for adults and in sci fi and/or fantasy?
84. Robert Westall
Blitzcat? *checks & nods* Blitzcat. I know I read that one, but I don't remember ANYTHING about it and I must reread it one day.
85. Ellen Emerson White
Ooh, yes, the President's Daughter quartet, of which I only ever read book 3, and the "rewritten for 2008" version at that. And a handful of other books I've read or come across over the years. Ooh, and still publishing?? Now I wanna read middle grade dog book Webster: Tale of an Outlaw asap. That's right, I remember now -- she's also "Nick Edwards" of the Santa Paws books.
86. Brenda Wilkinson
The lone Black author in this collection -- although I'm sure there were more in the first book, $50 on Walter Dean Meyers being one of them -- and I have never heard of her. Her bio is interesting -- namely the mention of being honored for the publication of her first book at a library that she wasn't allowed to enter as a child because it was "whites only."
87. Margaret Willey
Oh, Facing the Music! The one that I am more than halfway convinced actually features a young Ellen Pompeo as the cover model, not just a lookalike. I would not have thought her a famous name from that, but okay. I wish her bio talked a bit more about her books, since I see Goodreads is not in a mood to tell me a whit about her her other titles for teens...
88. Virginia Euwer Wolff
Make Lemonaaaaade! Also, I have grown weirdly fonder of her adult novel Rated PG in my memory than I felt when I read it; wondering if it uoght to be 4 stars now. None of her other teen/children's books outside the verse trilogy appeal to me at all. Though I will always remember an excerpt of The Mozart Season being used on a standardized test. One I scored, or one I actually took? LET IT BE A MYSTERY.
89. Hilma Wolitzer
I honestly don't know who this is, and have never heard of her work. But apparently, she's the mother of Meg Wolitzer!
90. Phyllis Anderson Wood
Never heard of her, but she looks to be very much in the line of vintage teen romances - the really distinctive kind that look exactly like mass market romances, but skinnier and with younger main characters. The Song of the Shaggy Canary sounds incredible, honestly.
An eighteen-year-old divorcee with a baby and a young veteran hurt by the war and a broken engagement want friendship without commitment, but find themselves becoming committed to each other.
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Thank you for coming to my book talk. I have no idea how I am going to condense or generalize my thoughts for a Goodreads review, so this was a fun exercise in getting all my flail out. Also a good reference for future me.