Author: mondomolly

“It was a YA or an adult book, a memoir, so I tried to be very secretive when I read this one at age 10 or so. (That would’ve been the late 90s, but the book was probably older.) It was in first person, I think, and it was the story of this girl growing up in the late 60s or 70s, and it was mostly about sex. She eventually gets pregnant, goes to college, gives birth, gives the baby up for adoption, and Begins To Move On.

Things I remember vividly: Boys cornering her at a park or in the woods, getting her blouse open, and writing “SLUT” on her breasts in permanent marker.  The main character marking out when she could and couldn’t have sex in a calendar.  One of her friends writing something like “nothing lezzie but I love you” in her yearbook.  Her getting pregnant, wanting no one to know, and taping her stomach down with duct tape (?).  She gives birth, gets to see the baby girl once (even though she’s not supposed to), and mentions how weird and empty her stomach feels just after it. And then, she joins her college campus newspaper, and one of the stories they’re running when she first goes in to ask about joining is called something like “Incest: One Daughter Speaks.” The cover was maybe a buff colour, and I can sort of picture a silhouette of a woman on it, but I don’t know if I’ve got it correct.” Confirmed: Grown-Up Fast By Betsy Israel 

Then there’s one set in a girls’ school which I remember only by a chapter starting with the headmistress or just a teacher saying that a guest lecturer “will be with us on Chuesday week.” [“a week from this Tuesday”—in an ultra-twee accent.] Suggestion:  Is That You, Miss Blue? By M.E. Kerr 

Updated 3/25/18: Mama’s Bank Account by Kathryn Forbes.

“We read this YA novel as a class assignment in 8th grade (1975) so it was probably a Scholastic publication. Girl has a hobby of raising pet birds (canaries?) and cares for sick birds. She has a glass-enclosed birdcage for this purpose, which is the only detail I really remember. She befriends/dates a “bad boy”. I’m very vague on the plot, but I think he is accused of doing something bad, but is innocent, and she stands by him. In the last scene, at her house, they kiss and she hears a bird singing “or maybe it was my heart”.  The Troublemaker By Robert McKay thanks to reader Sylvia! 

“The first book wasn’t so much a continuous story as each chapter was its own little tale but with the same characters (though I think it was still a linear story). I think it took place back in early-to-mid 1900s and it was about a girl who lived in this big old house on a farm with her aunt (or great aunt – maybe grandmother?). I think there was a chapter about a big thunderstorm and ghosts; another was about a pie baking competition. The girl might have been named Emily (or not). Pretty sure this was written in the 80s.” We seemed to have reached consensus that this is Beverly Cleary’s Emily’s Runaway Imagination! 

“This YA novel is about a teenage boy (an only child) who goes to summer camp, and finds out once at camp that his parents, in exchange for external youth, have signed an agreement to sacrifice every child they have together at age 18 at this same camp. The boy had an inkling as to what was going on prior to this, as he found a photo album in his parents’ attic of their past children (although he didn’t know that they were his dead siblings at the time.) The failed sacrifice (he escaped) occurs in some sort of cave, and his parents were there, and they spoke a lot about the last child they sacrificed, a daughter named Meg, with long, curly eyelashes, who didn’t have a clue what was going on until the very end. They also had a cat clock at their house, the ones where the tail swings back and forth.” Only Child By Jesse Osburn, thanks to Lost Classics reader Majenta!