Kate Spofford, author

Category: vintage young adult

  • May reading round-up

    # of books read: 21 audiobooks listened to: 5 ARCs read: 1 total page count: 4,538 year total page count: 20,077 I managed to get tons of reading done this month!  My favorite reads of the month were Bang by Barry Lyga (about a boy who shot and killed his younger sister when he was a toddler),…

  • January reading round-up

    # of books read: 20 audiobooks listened to: 5 ebooks read: 6 nonfiction read: 2 ARCs read: 1 books from the Experiment in Terror series: 4 books from the White Cat series: 3 vintage YA: 3 total page count: 4,376 I did a ton of reading this month. In newer releases, I finished up Bellevue: Three Centuries of Medicine and Mayhem at…

  • back when YA was an afterschool special

    “Vintage” young adult books fall into only a few genres, and I’ve just had the pleasure (?) of reading a few that fit the “Afterschool Special” genre.  This breed of YA is rarely seen for today’s teens.  Reading these books is like being hit over the head with the book’s Very Special Message. The Wave (1981),…

  • Cheerleaders in YA Horror

    Cheerleaders have been representing the “mean girl” since before the term was coined.  While during the 80s teen literature was full of the popular girls and the girls who wanted to be popular – think Sweet Valley High and the “Cheerleaders” series – once teen horror blew up in the late 80s and early 90s, cheerleaders…

  • Review: a bunch of Awful Library Books

    Found in my box at work: 1. Make-Up Monsters by Marcia Lynn Cox (1976) So, this looks innocent enough.  That’s until you open it up. Disease Face?  Is that a kind of monster?  Never mind the fact that this kid looks like his face is covered in oatmeal, glued on with corn syrup… Oh, wait.…

  • Review: Tightrope

    Tightrope by Gillian Cross Summary: Ashley – who chooses the name “Cindy” when she tags her graffiti – discovers someone is stalking her by sending weird notes and bits of liver and sheep skulls. Ashley draws the attention of Joe, the court jester to the street king Eddie Beale, and though Ashley is the “good girl”,…

  • Review: Fall into Darkness

    Fall into Darkness by Christopher Pike A summary of the plot based on the back of the book: Sharon stands accused of murder. While on a camping trip, she and her best friend Ann hiked to the top of a cliff. Their friends heard Ann scream “Don’t” and heard her screams as she fell over…

  • Review: Questions Young People Ask

    At the library, we get many book donations.  Some are great and add to our collection or bring in money from the book sales.  Other donations, however, are in a class of their own.  (If you have ever read the blog Awful Library Books, you’ll have some idea of what you’re in for.) As the…

  • Review: Gimme a Kiss

    Gimme a Kiss by Christopher Pike The short plot: Jane vows revenge when she finds that the last page of her diary has been photocopied and passed around the school. What was Jane’s secret? Why would she feel the need to go so far as murder? I couldn’t remember. So…. SPOILERS! Jane’s big bad secret…