Dear Lovey Hart

I really enjoyed two books they were in a series but I just googled and found out there was a third that I missed! Oh the horrors :) On was called I'll Take Manhattan (and no it wasn't the Judith Krantz book) and the other was To London With Love both by Danielle Barlette. Both involved fashion and clothing...alas I have nothing to do with it in my real life but I loved the books. And I bet my Mom still has them waiting for me back home. I also read a lot of my Mom's Nancy Drew books, so those things were old old old. But kind of cool that my Mom had read them before me.

My favorite young adult book was "Summer to Die" by Lois Lowry. I have re-read it a few times. I think I identified with the main character Meg, who was kind of a loner, and mature for her age. I just finally got around to reading "The Giver" by Lowry as well. Sometimes it's nice to read a good short book!

Another one I liked was "Are you there God? It's me, Margaret."

My all time favorite was "Harriet the Spy" by Louise Fitzhugh. A lonely misfit of a girl who wants to write- that was me. I also loved "The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler" by E.L. Konigsburg for suggesting that a girl could survive on her own wits. My own daughter didn't love these books as much as I did at her age, but then she's always been much more social and at ease in the world than I was.

I was enthralled with the Baby Sitters Club series as a pre-teen. Bookshelves lines my walls, I would peruse one or more a day, and developed such a bond with the characters. Crazy how you can relate to and feel so strongly for characters in a novel, isn't it? I credit the author of those books (whose name escapes me! Ann something?) for inspiring me to start writing. I thought, hey I can do that too!

By the time I was a teenager, I was reading lots of drek that didn't have much long-term influence, but as a pre-teen and younger reader, the books I loved were pretty indicative of who I am today...books about imagination, far aways worlds, and nature.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
The Little House on the Prairie series
Narnia Chronicles
Lord of the Rings
And any book that intructed you how to MAKE and FIX things! I loved cookbooks and build-it books as much as fiction.

If someone crossed Laura Ingalls Wilder with Charlie and the crazy kids in the closet and gave the offspring some glue, yarn, and a hammer, you'd probably get me.

There was one book that I adored the story of and have never been able to find, about a girl in England for the summer, whose boredom leads her to build a mermaid on the beach from shells and seaweed...a wave washes her creation into the sea and into being alive, and she ends up with a magical friend from the sea. I loved that story most of all.

Heck, I'm a 39-year-old male and I'm addicted to a CURRENT Young Adult series about a 14-year-old girl! Louise Rennison's Georgia Nicolson books (I just started the brand new one, STOP IN THE NAME OF PANTS!, last night) are, bar none, the funniest books being written right now, for teens or adults. Also, she gets the emotional tenor of being a teenager exactly right: long stretches of terminal boredom punctuated by moments of sheer existential terror.

I LOVED Ellen Conford. I had been trying to remember her name for ages when I came across a mention of her on Jezebel. She wrote a book called We Interrupt This Semester For An Important Bulletin that is absolutely hilarious.

Paul Zindel was another favorite. The Pigman, I Never Loved Your Mind, My Darling My Hamburger... all good, real stuff.

For current writers, you can't go wrong with Sarah Dessen. I read all her stuff as a teen and ended up having her as a professor in college. Someone Like You is a great book.

My roommate and I have been talking about starting a YA book club. Perhaps it would generate more interest than we previously thought!

Stewart--Thanks, I'll look that author up!

Amy R.--Yes, "We Interrupt ..." is the sequel to "Lovey Hart." And it is hilarious. And I think the idea of a YA book club is great!

My favorite series of all time is Nancy Drew. I read them for years and at one point had almost all 56 of the originals (well, the originals as they were edited in the 1950s... I'd love to read the originals from BEFORE they were edited). I can't stand the newer Nancy Drew knock-offs that are set in present times, or the recent movie. They ruin what was so good about the stories to begin with: the innocent settings, Nancy being the perfect young lady, no graphic violence, no murder, no sex, etc. Nancy was a lovely role model when I was younger.

Melissa-- The Babysitters Club books (which I also liked) are by Ann M. Martin.

Hilarious. Today, just out of nowhere, I fondly remembered "Dear Lovey Hart ..." and decided to search for it, and stumbled on your blog. I *loved* this book and its sequel, but I did not see the Afternoon Special (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0352280/) they made of it.

Along with the classics I loved, there were many great young adult books in my library (okay, actually, I still have 'em): "Karen," "Of Love and Death and and Other Journeys," (highly recommended) "Heads You Win, Tails I Lose," "Home Before Dark," "I Want to Be Free," "The Friends," (highly recommended) "The Telltale Summer of Tina C.," and so many more.

As a child, I always looked forward to summer so I could read without being rudely interrupted by--as much as I loved it--school. I'm going to dig out a few of these and hole-up in my room now.

Now that I've read the expanded synopsis, yes, I believe I once read "Lovey Hart". I do know I really enjoyed Ellen Conford's collection of short stories entitled "If This Is Love, I'll Take Speghetti".

Despite being written from the male perspective, my all-time favorite YA novel is Jerry Spinelli's "Space Station Seventh Grade". Hilarious.

My mom had read the Trixie Beldon mystery series as a child and I happily followed suit. I still own the full series of 39.

I read my way through the entire YA section over several blissful summers. (Nothing but reading and swimming--ah, the good old days!) I purchased many favorite worn-out paperbacks at the library's annual book sales, most of which I still can't bear to part with.

For me, definitely "From the Mixed-Up Files..." I was a small-town girl, and the notion of setting off for an adventure in the city -- relying on nothing but one's wits, if necessary, as Liz said above -- really shaped my longings. Shaped my life, actually.

I still read LM Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables books when I need a pick me up. Anne has the ability to make connections with people and gently manipulate them to a happier state of being. She finds joy in the simple pleasures of life and places a high value on friendship. Her notion of "kindred spirits" and her motto that "Today is a new day with no mistakes in it" have been helpful throughout my life. People may consider her first couple of books as children's stories (they aren't - anyone of any age will find them captivating) but the later books in the series read more like YA.

And here I thought I'd be the first one to get to mention "If This is Love, I'll Take Spaghetti."

Also in the Wisecracking Suburbia genre are Paula Danziger's books. When I first began reading young adult fiction, perhaps a little before I should have, my mother gave me her well-loved copies of "The Pistachio Prescription" and "The Cat Ate My Gymsuit." When faced with a particularly tough writing assignment for work or school, I always think of Marcy's opening of "Communication is Noitacinummoc spelled backwards" and am tempted to follow suit.

oh! oh! Thanks so much to Jenny for reminding me of the Paula Danzinger books - those were definitely my favorites. I also really liked "Maudie and Me and the Dirty Book" by Betty Miles.

I'm now in a profession where I have to stand up for myself and what I know - similar to these books. Interesting!

I LOVED Harriet the Spy, and it really holds up. So does Laura Ingalls Wilder--she is truly one of my favorite writers living or dead. I really liked everything by E.L. Konigsberg, too. Also, the "All of a Kind Family" books.

I retain a fondness for the Anne of Green Gables books, but I'm not sure completely why, because I find Anne a little annoying and I dislike being told how to feel about the character all the time. Just recently I discovered the Emily books by the same author and they are superb!