I’m participating in the A-Z Blogging Challenge, where I post every day in the month of April (except Sundays) and each day is a letter.

My theme for the month is a series of posts about the things that shaped me.

Teen/Tween Book Series from the 80s and 90s

There are so many. SO SO SO MANY. Just want to highlight a few of my favorites:

Sweet Valley Twins/High

Sure, I read Sweet Valley High — but I always preferred Sweet Valley Twins. It was still all about the Wakefield twins, with the same family and mostly the same friends as the older novels.

And of course they were still Elizabeth (the nerd) and Jessica (the cheerleader) — perfect blonde California girls — but the stories were less fraught with drama and a bit (just the teensiest bit) more relatable. Which is why they took up some reasonably substantial real estate on my childhood bookcase.

The Baby-Sitters Club

This was the series that took up the most room on same-said bookcase, because good lord there were just so many of them.

I had tons of the regular series — I think I got into the 90s before I stopped collecting them. Then there were the Super Specials, the Mysteries, and the Super Mysteries…

I stopped reading them once I was older than the oldest of the sitters. And when I realized just how terrible these books are. Every single one of them spent a chapter describing each character and their quirks, and there’s only so many different ways to explain Kristy as the bossy leader, Mary Anne as the quiet one, Stacey as the sophisticated one, and Claudia as the arty one. BORING.

Also, it was astounding how many adventures these girls had in one year. And they were all over the place too — it would be Christmas one book, school starting the next, and then all of a sudden, spring. Is basic continuity really SO hard?

The Gymnasts

I was not an athletic kid, but the one thing I did do, was gymnastics. So when I found The Gymnasts book series, of course I gobbled them up.

Once again, we have four tween girls with somewhat distinct personalities, having one shared goal. This time, instead of a babysitting business, they are bonding together as a gymnastic team. And with a common enemy — an obnoxious older girl who just hates the “Pinecones” (their team name) on principle.

I loved all the references to gymnastic equipment and moves and the whole bit… until I stopped participating myself (as it turns out, I just was not flexible like at all, and then there was the fear of heights…). Once I stopped being a gymnast, I stopped reading about gymnasts.

The Saddle Club

Around the same time I was obsessed with gymnasts, I was also obsessed with horses.

Note: I have only ridden an actual horse once in my entire life, at fifth-grade camp. I don’t remember much except being crazy excited to finally get to sit on a horse and they really smell worse than you would expect.

But thankfully, you don’t smell them when you read about the adventures of Stevie, Carole, and their new friend Lisa at the Pine Hollow Stables.

I think I read the first couple dozen of these and until just this minute I had NO idea there were over a hundred books in the series, as well as an Australian TV show. Who knew?

Sleepover Friends

I LOVED Sleepover Friends. I don’t know why this one in particular spoke to me, but it did.

Again, we have four girls with particular personalities: Kate is the bossy leader, Lauren is the athlete, Patti is the shy one, and Stephanie is the outgoing “sophisticated” former city-dweller — who for some reason will only wear clothes in some combination of red, black and white. (She even has a calico kitty, who is black, white, and — you guessed it — red.)

Of course the majority of the action takes place at their regular sleepovers, which of course are always awesome, no one wets their sleeping bag, and no one calls home in tears, begging to go home early. It’s the dream life of every fifth-grade girl.

They even released a “Super Sleepover Guide,” with recipes and tips and activities for different themed slumber parties. I don’t think I ever put any of their tips to good use, but man was it fun reading.

Girl Talk

This one was probably my favorite. Again — no idea why. They’re not exactly classic literature and I’d probably cringe reading it today, but I think I may have had a complete set of this one at the time.

I might be crazy, but I swear that this was some kind of mail-order subscription my mom signed up for. I feel like every other month or so, I’d get a package with (3? 4?) several books at a time. And because they were so short, and I was a voracious reader, I’d have them finished before I went to bed that night.

And then I’d re-read them again. And again.

Once again, it’s a series about four (of course) junior high girls, and how they manage their school, families, crushes, and other whatnot. And again, each girl is a simple stereotype — Sabrina is super extroverted and wants to be an actress; Kate is ultra put-together and plays some mean hockey; Allison is a super smart and shy (gasp! diversity!) Native American; and skateboarding, spiky-haired drummer Randy just moved to their tiny town from New York (of course).

How about you? Did you read any of these truly terrible but compulsively readable series? And did I forget any good ones?