Best of
Coming-Of-Age

1984

English Creek


Ivan Doig - 1984
    It is a season of escapade as well as drama, during which fourteen-year-old Jick comes of age. Through his eyes we see those nearest and dearest to him at a turning point—“where all four of our lives made their bend”—and discover along with him his own connection to the land, to history, and to the deep-fathomed mysteries of one’s kin and one’s self.

The Adrian Mole Diaries


Sue Townsend - 1984
    The difference, though, between young Master Mole and his peers is that this British lad keeps a diary - an earnest chronicle of longing and disaster that has charmed more than five million readers since its two-volume initial publication. From teen-aged Adrian's anguished adoration of a lovely, mercurial schoolmate to his view of his parents' constantly creaking relationship to his heartfelt but hilarious attempts at cathartic verse, here is an outrageous triumph of deadpan - and deadly accurate - satire. ABBA, Princess Di's wedding, street punks, Monty Python, the Falklands campaign . . . all the cultural pageantry of a keenly observed era marches past the unique perspective of Sue Townsend's brilliant comic creation: A . Mole, the unforgettable lad whose self-absorption only gets funnier as his life becomes more desperate.

The Changeover


Margaret Mahy - 1984
    From the moment she saw it, Laura Chant knew that something dreadful was going to happen. It wasn’t the first time she’d been forewarned. But never before had anything so terrible happened. The horrifyingly evil Carmody Braque touched and branded her little brother – and now Jacko was very ill, getting steadily worse.There was only one way to save him. Laura had to change over: had to release her supernatural powers. And that meant joining forces with the extraordinary and enigmatic Sorenson Carlisle…

Cold Sassy Tree


Olive Ann Burns - 1984
    Rucker Blakeslee, elopes with Miss Love Simpson. He is barely three weeks a widower, and she is only half his age and a Yankee to boot. As their marriage inspires a whirlwind of local gossip, fourteen-year-old Will Tweedy suddenly finds himself eyewitness to a family scandal, and that’s where his adventures begin.Cold Sassy Tree is the undeniably entertaining and extraordinarily moving account of small-town Southern life in a bygone era. Brimming with characters who are wise and loony, unimpeachably pious and deliciously irreverent, Olive Ann Burns’s classic bestseller is a timeless, funny, and resplendent treasure.

The Miracle of Miss Willie


Alma J. Yates - 1984
    They're not hard-core delinquents, they’re just full of energy and can’t resist any chance to make a little (or a lot of) mischief. Everybody at school and at church agrees—reforming them will take a miracle.That miracle arrives in the form of Miss Willie, the new English teacher at the high school. The boys have never met anyone like her. She’s pretty and she’s feminine, but she can’t be bulldozed—not even by three rambunctious football players. To everyone’s surprise, Miss Willie befriends the boys, and all three immediately fall in love with her.While the boys teach Miss Willie about Snowflake and auto mechanics, she teaches them about Shakespeare, Spanish, etiquette, and girls. But some lessons are harder to learn than others, especially the final one Miss Willie teachers her lovesick pupils.The Miracle of Miss Willie is a novel you will not likely forget. It will make you laugh out loud, but it will also put a lump in your throat and make you think.

Virgins


Caryl Rivers - 1984
    This book contains the rules and regimen, hijinks and longing of that time.

Down the Long Wind


Gillian Bradshaw - 1984
    Forced to flee from her dark spells, he journeys to Britian where, with the aid of the sword of light and a horse whcih runs like the wind and never tires, he joins King Arhtur's battle to rid Britain of dark forces. Though defeated for a time - a time of peace and strength in Arthur's Britian - the forces muster again. Their weapon is the tragic love of Gwynhwyfar for Bedwyr, a passion which is to set the stage for the final battle. Complete for the first time in one volume, Gillian Bradshaw's brilliant trilogy recrerates the mystery of Arthur's Britain with breathtaking skill.Contains the full texts of:Hawk of MayIn winters shadowKingdom of Summer

Disappearances


Howard Frank Mosher - 1984
    It is the memorable tale of a young man named Wild Bill Bonhomme, his larger-than-life father, Quebec Bill, and their whiskey-smuggling exploits along the Vermont-Canada border in 1932. On an epic journey through the wilderness, Bill and his father encounter a cast of wild characters—and live out magical escapades as they carve their way into legend.