The influence of the most beloved classic children’s and YA books of the 1980s has lived on into the present time, but tright here are a couple of genuinely underrated books of the ’80s that deserve to be study these days. Most men and women know the classic children’s books of the 1980s, such as Matilda,Hatchet, or the Ramona Quimby books. Other series, such as the Sweet Valley High series, weren’t literary juggernauts but have been wildly common nonetheless.

While it is accurate that some as soon as-common 1980s kids’ books have aged poorly, there are a lot of much more from the decade that have not gotten their right due. Sometimes it is since they have been lesser-identified books from the big names of the era, their light overshadowed by the authors’ genuinely iconic performs. At other instances, they have been books from authors who did not pretty attain the heights of prestige of their contemporaries. Either way, the books on this list are 1980s books for little ones of all ages that are properly worth a study these days.

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10 The Saddle Club

Bonnie Bryant

Everyone knew at least one particular horse girl in college maybe these reading this have been horse girls themselves. There’s some thing about living horses that comes as a rite of passage for particular girls, and Bonnie Bryant’s The Saddle Club series knows this. Like a lot of extended-operating children’s and teen book series of that era, The Saddle Club had a number of unique ghostwriters writing it more than the years, even though Bryant wrote more than 100 of the books herself.

The Saddle Club series had a very simple premise. Three finest good friends – Carole, Stevie, and Lisa – develop up with each other loving horses and riding, and they encounter all the usual difficulties that preteen and young teen girls have. Naturally, it is by way of their unshakable friendship and really like of horses that their difficulties are resolved even though teaching the reader about horses since, immediately after all, horses resolve every thing. They may perhaps be very simple and sweet, but they make the ideal stories for preteens, specifically fellow horse girls.

9 Homecoming

Cynthia Voigt

Cynthia Voigt was and is a prolific writer of children’s and YA literature, with her gaining certain praise for her Tillerman Cycle series. While the second story in the Tillerman Cycle, Dicey’s Song, is the one particular that tends to get the most recognition (and won the Newbery in 1983) the initially book, Homecoming, deserves just as significantly praise. It’s a extended book at properly more than 400 pages, but worth the study.

Homecoming kicks off the story of the Tillerman kids, who are abandoned by their mother in a purchasing mall on their way to go to their Aunt Cilla. As the oldest, 13-year-old Dicey decides to continue on their journey and locate their aunt in the initially half of the book even though the second particulars what takes place immediately after they locate her. The book does a excellent job of underscoring Dicey’s resilience and the necessity of expanding up rapidly. Any little ones who locate themselves getting to come to be adults also quickly or dealing with neglectful parents will locate significantly to relate to in Homecoming.

8 Locked in Time

Lois Duncan

Lois Duncan and her books have been beloved by teenagers in the 80s and 90s (and beyond), with her concentrate on suspense, thrillers, and Gothic horror generating her a queen of supernatural stories for young men and women. Multiple books by Duncan have been adapted as motion pictures, such as Summer of Fear, which Wes Craven adapted in 1978. Her most properly-identified function, thanks to the motion pictures it spawned, is I Know What You Did Last Summer.

Though Locked in Time is not one particular of Duncan’s finest-identified novels, it is an underrated supernatural gem in her bibliography. It tells the story of teenager Nore Roberts, who is nevertheless grieving the death of her mother when she leaves boarding college and travels to Louisiana to go to her dad and his new bride. She quickly notices that points are off with her new household – they in no way age and have not for generations. It’s a spooky study steeped in the Gothic South. A current 2011 republish updated components of it for a contemporary audience, generating it just as entertaining and relevant for contemporary teens as it was in the ’80s and ’90s.

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7 Girls of Canby Hall

Emily Chase

Emily Chase wasn’t pretty as properly-identified as other contemporaries of her era, but her books are beloved by these who have study them. That mentioned, the cause for her not getting pretty as properly identified is since she does not exist. Instead, “Emily Chase” was a pseudonym utilised by a quantity of writers to ghostwrite “Emily Chase’s” most popular series, The Girls of Canby Hall.

The Girls of Canby Hall utilizes the usual trappings of that era: a group of teen good friends and the trials and tribulations they face. The girls are students at a private boarding college, the titular Canby Hall. At initially, Shelley, Faith, and Dana butt heads as roommates due to their unique personalities. They at some point come to be finest good friends and overcome challenges with each other even though expanding up. The books are very simple and not usually deep, but the characterization and most of the writing nevertheless hold up these days, generating for stories that are nevertheless an entertaining study for young teens.

6 Trapper

Stephen Cosgrove

Stephen Cosgrove’s function was beloved by kids of the ’70s and ’80s, especially for his Serendipity series. Cosgrove was strongly influenced by Aesop’s Fables and nature, and his books all have a tendency to center about animal protagonists. Some of these animals are totally fictional creatures, such as Morgan the unicorn and Serendipity the dragon, even though other folks are actual animals, like mice and bears.

One of these actual creatures is Trapper, a infant harp seal whose life is upended when a strange monster (spoilers: it is a human) captures all the other seals. As with a lot of Stephen Cosgrove books, there is a robust theme of environmental duty told in a gentle way. In the finish, of course, tiny Trapper teaches the human a important lesson about not getting greedy and respecting nature. It’s geared toward younger readers, but Trapper and the whole Serendipity series are excellent starter books to get little ones considering about duty, conscientiousness, and the creatures we interact with.

5 The Dollhouse Murders

Betty Ren Wright

The 1980s have been a time ripe with suspense and horror books for YA readers, specifically teen girls, and Betty Ren Wright was proper in the thick of it. While other writers leaned much more into the realm of psychological thriller or Gothic suspense, Wright firmly planted her flag in the supernatural, with most of her books for young adults revolving about ghosts and spirits. Though she wasn’t a massive award winner, her ghost stories have been properly-loved and served as the gateway for a lot of young readers to spookier stuff.

Of her books, The Dollhouse Murders is one particular of her superior identified. Teenager Amy finds an old dollhouse in her aunt’s residence that is the precise replica of the residence itself. It quickly exhibits a strange phenomenon of the dolls moving by themselves, reenacting the horrific murder of Amy’s excellent-grandparents decades just before. Amy, her intellectually disabled sister, Louann, and her finest buddy, Ellen, come to be obsessed with solving the murder and laying the spirits of their household members to rest. Wright pulls no punches: The Dollhouse Murders is taut and suspenseful, threaded by way of with familial drama and relationships.

4 Just As Long As We’re Together

Judy Blume

Few writers are comparable to Judy Blume, who is renowned and beloved for her classic children’s and young adult books. The author of 30 books ranging from children’s books to books for adults, Judy Blume is about as celebrated as they come, winning practically 100 awards, which includes 3 lifetime achievement awards, getting named to the Library of Congress’ Living Legends list, and getting awarded the National Book Foundation’s Distinguished Contribution to American Letters Medal.

While Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret is undoubtedly her most popular book amongst a lot of popular books, Just As Long As We’re Together holds up against any of them. The companion piece to the later book Here’s to You, Rachel Robinson, Just As Long As We’re Together establishes the friendship amongst Rachel and narrator Stephanie Hirsch. Thirteen-year-old Stephanie’s life is thrown into turmoil when her parents separate, she moves to a new college, her period begins, and she discovers boys. The challenges she offers with are ones that any young teen can comprehend.

3 Wait Till Helen Comes

Mary Downing Hahn

Like other writers on this list, Mary Downing Hahn is identified for her supernatural and gothic performs of fiction. Hahn is a prolific writer who is nevertheless publishing properly into her 80s her most current book, The Ghost of Fulton Arms, was published just this year. Her function has been awarded at the state and national level thanks to her blending of the supernatural with deeper, darker human themes. Wait Till Helen Comes is one particular of her most haunting stories – actually and figuratively.

Twelve-year-old Molly and her younger brother Michael all of a sudden locate themselves thrust into an uncomfortable new life when their mother, Jean, remarries Dave. Dave’s seven-year-old daughter, Heather, resents her new stepsiblings and quickly turns to Helen, the spirit of a young girl she befriends. Helen begins carrying out malicious acts against Molly and Michael, but Molly quickly discovers the tortured ghost may perhaps have sinister intentions for Heather. The story gets pretty dark as it also grapples with themes of death, guilt, and suicide, generating it a gripping and poignant study.

2 Nothing’s Fair in Fifth Grade

Barthe DeClements

Over her multi-decade profession, Barthe DeClements has written more than a dozen books for young readers. Like Emily Chase, she did not pretty attain the heights of other children’s authors of the era, but her books nevertheless won a number of awards. Most have been aimed squarely at middle-grade readers and the pre-teen years, and her stories are nevertheless in publication these days.

Of her stories, Nothing’s Fair in Fifth Grade is arguably her most celebrated and properly-loved book. Published in 1981, it is also her initially. The story follows young Elsie, who is awkward and overweight, tries to match in with her fifth-grade peers. Her awkwardness and troubled residence life, having said that, develop a difficult journey to locate acceptance. Like other folks on this list, Nothing’s Fair in Fifth Grade has not too long ago gotten an update, but the themes of bullying, getting ostracized, and traumatic household difficulties are timeless. Any kid who feels awkward, and even these who never, can see a bit of themselves in Elsie.

1 Taming the Star Runner

S.E. Hinton

S.E. Hinton place herself on the map in the late 60s with the classic book The Outsiders, and her novels immediately after that have been all equally celebrated. Her final young adult novel, Taming the Star Runner, does not have almost the recognition of her earlier YA books, which is also why it is the only one particular that has in no way been adapted as a film. Even so, Taming the Star Runner is nevertheless properly worth a study.

The 1988 book follows 16-year-old Travis, whose borderline delinquent approaches get him sent to reside with his uncle in rural Oklahoma. He gets a job at a nearby horse ranch and falls for an older, much more emotionally mature young lady. While there, Travis figures some points out about his abusive residence life and himself in the only one particular of Hinton’s books to be written in the third particular person. It’s a quietly very simple coming-of-age story, sharing a quantity of the identical themes as The Outsiders, but with the much more layered, mature point of view that only time can give.