Jeannette Eyerly, 100, wrote novels with teen girl themes

NEW YORK - Jeannette Eyerly, one of the first writers for young adults to deal with themes like unwanted pregnancy, alcoholism, and drugs, died Aug. 18 at her home in Des Moines. She was 100.

Her death was confirmed by her grandson Josh Pichler.

In books like "Drop-Out," "A Girl Like Me," and "Escape From Nowhere," Mrs. Eyerly moved beyond the pretty-in-pink world of dates and sock hops to focus on more serious problems confronting young girls. In addition to facing the usual troubles with school and boyfriends, her heroines dealt with their parents' failing marriages or with peer pressure to take drugs or shoplift.

"In a humane and compassionate way she broached subjects that were not being written about or discussed," said Starr LaTronica, the youth services manager for the Four County Library System in Vestal, N.Y. "She blazed the way."

Jeannette Hyde was born in Topeka, Kan., and grew up in Des Moines. She attended Drake University and the University of Iowa, where she earned a bachelor's degree in English in 1930.

In 1932, she married Frank Eyerly, an editor at The Des Moines Register.

He died in 1997. She leaves a sister, Martha Owen of St. Louis; two daughters, Susan Pichler of Cincinnati and Jane Kozuszek of St. Louis; six grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren.

After college, Mrs. Eyerly worked as the publicity director for the Des Moines Public Library and wrote short stories and how-to articles on raising children for magazines like Ladies' Home Journal, McCall's, and Better Homes & Gardens.

With a friend, Valeria Winkler Griffith, she also wrote a syndicated weekly newspaper column, "Family Diary."

In 1962 she published "More Than a Summer Love," a romance with a message: Do not marry too soon. It was followed a year later by "Drop-Out," whose intent, she later wrote, was to dissuade teenagers from leaving school, not by lecturing them, but by engaging them in a good story.

She wrote 17 novels over the next 25 years, nearly all with young women as protagonists. Often, to develop her material, she interviewed girls being cared for by social service agencies. Some of her best-known novels, and their themes, were "The Girl Inside" (coping with death), "Bonnie Jo, Go Home" (abortion), "Someone to Love Me" (unwed parenthood), and "Angel Baker, Thief" (shoplifting).

"She was the 'Gossip Girls' writer of 30 years ago," said Roger Sutton, the editor in chief of Horn Book Publications. "This is what teenage girls were reading, despite what their teachers said."