Best of
Coming-Of-Age

1982

The Body


Robin Waterfield - 1982
    As they travel, they discover how cruel the world can be, but also how wondrous.

Run with the Horsemen


Ferrol Sams - 1982
    is a precocious, sensitive, and rambunctious boy trying to make it through adolescence during the depression years. On a red-clay farm in Georgia he learns all there is to know about cotton chopping, hog killing, watermelon thumping, and mule handling. School provides a quick course in practical joking, schoolboy crushes, athletic glory, and clandestine sex. But it is Porter's family - his genteel, patient mother, his swarm of cousins, his snuff-dipping grandmother, and, most of all, his beloved though flawed father - who teach Porter the painful truths about growing up strong enough to run with the horsemen.

Ham on Rye


Charles Bukowski - 1982
    From a harrowingly cheerless childhood in Germany through acne-riddled high school years and his adolescent discoveries of alcohol, women, and the Los Angeles Public Library's collection of D. H. Lawrence, "Ham on Rye" offers a crude, brutal, and savagely funny portrait of an outcast's coming-of-age during the desperate days of the Great Depression.

Growing Up


Russell Baker - 1982
    in the Depresson years and World War II that has ever been written."—Harrison Salisbury.

The Body


Stephen King - 1982
    Ray Brower, a boy from a nearby town, has disappeared, and twelve-year-old Gordie Lachance and his three friends set out on a quest to find his body along the railroad tracks. During the course of their journey, Gordie, Chris Chambers, Teddy Duchamp, and Vern Tessio come to terms with death and the harsh truths of growing up in a small factory town that doesn’t offer much in the way of a future. A timeless exploration of the loneliness and isolation of young adulthood, Stephen King’s The Body is an iconic, unforgettable, coming-of-age story.

The Farthing Wood Collection 2


Colin Dann - 1982
    In FOX'S FEUD young fox cub, Dreamer, has been killed in a vicious attack, and the animals in White Deer Park have no doubt who is responsible. Fox vows revenge, but are he and his young family a match for the formidable strength of Scarface and his clan? Yet again the animals must band together to avert disaster. FOX CLUB BOLD sees Dreamer’s brother, Bold, venture into dangerous territory in an attempt to make peace with the enemy. Despite his good intentions, Bold is imprisoned and Fox has to come to his rescue.

Another Country


Julian Mitchell - 1982
    Bennett is openly gay, while Judd is a Marxist.One night a house man walks in on Martineau and a boy from another house together in the dark room. Martineau commits suicide because of the shame of having been found in a homosexual embrace, and chaos erupts as teachers and the senior students try their hardest to keep the scandal away from parents and the rest of the outside world. However, the gay scandal gives the army-obsessed house captain Fowler, who dislikes both Bennett and Judd, a welcome reason to scheme against them.

Vlad the Drac


Ann Jungman - 1982
    Not only is the vampire very tiny, he is also a vegetarian with dreams of starring in horror films... Vlad persuades Judy and Paul to smuggle him back to London but the children decide to keep him a secret in case the vampire gets put in a museum or the zoo. Still a vampire left on his own all day can get terribly bored and find all kinds of mischief to pass the time. A very funny book that has stood the test of time and an entertaining look at the problems facing an outsider.

The Shadow Hunter


Pat Murphy - 1982
    Transported to the distant future, to a time beyond our own, he entered a strange world, inhabited by people who did not know the nature spirits or even understand the spirits of their own technology.

Maggie Adams, Dancer


Karen Strickler Dean - 1982
    A young girl is determined to succeed as a ballet dancer despite the ambivalent attitudes of her parents and her boyfriend.