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Gritty, realistic fiction published in the 1970's and 80's featuring teens in a variety of crises: abuse, addiction, anorexia, pregnancy, mental illness and running away from home. NO: gothic, mystery, supernatural
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268 books · 70 voters · list created December 22nd, 2012 by Andria (votes) .
32 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


Andria 1680 books
328 friends
Susanna - Censored by GoodReads 3386 books
851 friends
Kim 248 books
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Manybooks 22276 books
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Marianinna 875 books
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Dalee Camp 1968 books
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Azur 2112 books
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Zest 104 books
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More voters…


Comments Showing 1-22 of 22 (22 new)

dateUp arrow    newest »

message 1: by Irene (new)

Irene interesantísimo por doquier


Zombieslayer⚡Alienhunter Why did so many books of this era have such painfully generic covers?


message 3: by Celeste (new)

Celeste Before Life Happened/Curtis - not classic 70s/80s.


message 4: by Celeste (new)

Celeste Also, Stuck in Neutral/Trueman - not classic.


message 5: by Andria (new)

Andria Celeste wrote: "Before Life Happened/Curtis - not classic 70s/80s." Yeah, people have added a bunch of books to this list that don't fit the criteria. I don't know how to remove them. :(


message 6: by Andria (new)

Andria Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, also not classic.

It's really annoying.


Susanna - Censored by GoodReads Make a list and tell me where they are on the list, and I'll be happy to remove them.


message 8: by Andria (last edited Feb 22, 2017 10:41AM) (new)

Andria Susanna - Censored by GoodReads wrote: "Make a list and tell me where they are on the list, and I'll be happy to remove them."

I made this list, and I'm a GR librarian so I should be able to do it myself, no? I'd like to know how. What am I missing?


Susanna - Censored by GoodReads You should see a "remove books from this list" option underneath the one for "combine duplicates," when you hit edit.


message 10: by Andria (new)

Andria Susanna - Censored by GoodReads wrote: "You should see a "remove books from this list" option underneath the one for "combine duplicates," when you hit edit."

Oh, duh. I thought that edit button only edited the list description, not the entire list. I feel dumb now. Thank you!! I'll clean the list up tonight.


Susanna - Censored by GoodReads Yeah, a lot of things about this site are not as obvious as they could be.


message 12: by Rainbowheart (new)

Rainbowheart Just a heads up, people have added a whole bunch of non 70s/80s books to the list.


message 13: by Andria (new)

Andria Rainbowheart wrote: "Just a heads up, people have added a whole bunch of non 70s/80s books to the list."

Thanks for letting me know. I'll clean it up now. I don't understand how people who obviously *can* read fail to comprehend the description of this list.


message 14: by Andria (new)

Andria Ok, I think I got all the Sarah Dessens and other miscategorized ones. LMK if you see any I missed. And I edited the list description a bit.


message 15: by Rainbowheart (new)

Rainbowheart I think you got most of them! There was one other Sarah Dessen which I removed just now.


message 16: by Cheryl (new)

Cheryl Wait, what? I just added The Basketball Diaries and The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds but maybe they're too old... but they're def. classics!


message 17: by Andria (new)

Andria Hi Cheryl, I agree that they are classics, but this list is specifically for "Gritty, realistic fiction published in the 1970's and 80's" and I remove any titles that don't fit that description. Sorry!


message 18: by Andria (new)

Andria I also deleted Forever . . . because that doesn't depict a teen "in crisis." Deciding to have consensual sex with one's boyfriend is not a crisis.


message 19: by Rainbowheart (new)

Rainbowheart FYI, Stick Figure, Annie's Baby, and It Happened to Nancy were all published in the '90s.


message 20: by Becca (new)

Becca I deleted Holes by Louis Sachar since it was first published in 1998.


message 21: by Cheryl (new)

Cheryl Basketball Diaries 1978.
How does it not qualify?


message 22: by Tricia (new)

Tricia Scott Zombieslayer⚡Alienhunter wrote: "Why did so many books of this era have such painfully generic covers?"

I actually really like the 'generic' covers. I feel they are more real than what many of the books have today.


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