Are you there MeFi? It's Me, K8t. June 20, 2007 4:50 PM   Subscribe

Sidebar nomination: 12-year-old girl changed-your-life books
posted by k8t to MetaFilter-Related at 4:50 PM (41 comments total)

JINX
posted by fishfucker at 5:02 PM on June 20, 2007


Dejinxed. RIP, mysterious metatalk doublepost.
posted by cortex (staff) at 5:04 PM on June 20, 2007


Thanks Cortex.
posted by k8t at 5:08 PM on June 20, 2007


Agreed, that is a great thread.

But whatever happened to flagging things as fantastic?
posted by dersins at 5:09 PM on June 20, 2007


There's fantastic and then there's FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC.

I wonder if I should add to that thread the life-changing book that helped me decide to change from a 12-year-old girl to a 12-year-old boy?
posted by wendell at 5:26 PM on June 20, 2007


Seems like people are just suggesting their favorite books.
posted by smackfu at 5:32 PM on June 20, 2007


Metafilter: Seems like people are just suggesting their favorite books.
posted by mattbucher at 5:34 PM on June 20, 2007 [1 favorite]


Metafilter: Metafilter: Seems like people are just suggesting their favorite books.
posted by killdevil at 5:38 PM on June 20, 2007 [1 favorite]


Metaf.... aw screw it, the moment's passed
posted by edgeways at 5:44 PM on June 20, 2007 [2 favorites]


Yeah it had a huge "I'll go first" list and it was okay but didn't really stand out to me as superduper excellent Perhaps I am jaded.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 5:50 PM on June 20, 2007


There is a fine line between flagging as fantastic and flagging for deletion.
posted by found missing at 6:06 PM on June 20, 2007


In Safari under OS X 10.4.9 it looks more like a drop-down menu than a fine line, found missing.
posted by cgc373 at 6:08 PM on June 20, 2007 [1 favorite]


Island of Blue Dolphins!!! Oh my god, I've been trying to remember the name of that book for over a decade.
posted by milarepa at 6:21 PM on June 20, 2007


Are you there mods? It's me, Margaret.
posted by sourwookie at 6:27 PM on June 20, 2007 [2 favorites]


Island of Blue Dolphins!!!

That's the one where the girl's brother gets killed by wild dogs and then she sees his brain eaten by eagles right? That changed my life for sure. I'm fairly certain I'm the only Judy Blume reader among the mod contingent, but I could be wrong.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 6:32 PM on June 20, 2007


Judy Blume is definitely Change My Life material. Many of the rest of those books are simply classics, but not life-alteringly so.
posted by Brittanie at 7:03 PM on June 20, 2007


It's the kind of thread that people like to post to, but don't like to read. Or is that just me?
posted by The corpse in the library at 7:05 PM on June 20, 2007


No, that's what it is. Something Awful created a whole forum on their site for those kind of questions called "Post Your Favorite". No one reads it.
posted by smackfu at 7:13 PM on June 20, 2007


I read it - I found it interesting that I've read and enjoyed pretty much every book I've seen mentioned so far, which means that I'll probably go to the effort of checking my library for the handful I haven't seen.

I don't get the Judy Blume love, though- I've read them all, but they're just stories. Why so popular?
posted by jacalata at 7:18 PM on June 20, 2007


Because they're books about teenage girls going through things that most teenage girls don't talk to each other about (and that mother's don't talk to their girls about). They make you feel like you aren't a freak of nature.
posted by Brittanie at 7:36 PM on June 20, 2007


If someone can post an alternate list of MeFi-themed versions of all these titles (Are You There, Mods? It's Me, Margaret; Gone With The Triple Post; etc.) AND if Cortex can then whip them up into a tuneful ditty, THEN as the original poster I would be honored to have the thread in the sidebar. In the meanwhile, I'm just super-grateful for those of you who chimed in about books that meant something to you when you were young. (I am definitely including a shout-out to Ask Metafilter in the acknowledgments!)
posted by mothershock at 7:48 PM on June 20, 2007


Did she write "Deenie"? I think I must be the only person who ever read that one. It was about getting scoliosis and having to wear a brace and OH GOD, what if the cute boy you like tries to feel you up and FEELS YOUR BRACE? I never had scoliosis, but that book made me feel like I could deal.
posted by web-goddess at 7:49 PM on June 20, 2007


Sidebar nomination: A block of text telling people to STFU about sidebar nominations. Let the flags/faves do their work.
posted by Eideteker at 8:03 PM on June 20, 2007


I read Deenie. It scared the crap out of me. Scoliosis was the scariest thing I could imagine, until I learned about...

herpes!
posted by bink at 8:07 PM on June 20, 2007 [1 favorite]


Did she write "Deenie"? I think I must be the only person who ever read that one. It was about getting scoliosis and having to wear a brace and OH GOD, what if the cute boy you like tries to feel you up and FEELS YOUR BRACE? I never had scoliosis, but that book made me feel like I could deal.

I've read "Deenie"... My best friend in junior high wore one of the giant full torso braces... She was so comfortable with herself that she often wore it outside her clothing (she said it wasn't as hot and itchy that way)... I guess it had the added advantage that any boys who "felt her up" wouldn't have run into any surprises.
posted by amyms at 8:14 PM on June 20, 2007


Oops, forgot to add that I agree with those who've said it's an interesting thread but not really sidebar material.
posted by amyms at 8:20 PM on June 20, 2007


I read Deenie.
posted by Brittanie at 8:54 PM on June 20, 2007


Ugh, Judy Blume is so utterly third-rate and mediocre that the kindest and wisest thing that can be done is to ignore her. I read her books as a kid, just as I read everything I could get my hands on, and fine, they were interesting for their frank and earthy nautre, but they had nothing much else going for them.
posted by orange swan at 9:09 PM on June 20, 2007


I absolutely loved that Cynthia Voigt, a terrific writer and former grade school English teacher, included her opinion of Blume in Izzy Willy-Nilly (recommended in the thread).

Izzy says to her new, smart friend Rosamunde that she's "never read any famous authors before, except Judy Blume." Rosamunde says, "Well, there's famous and famous."

Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
posted by orange swan at 9:36 PM on June 20, 2007


I'm not a parent, and probably thankfully so for our society, but do people really worry a lot about what a twelve-year-old is reading? I mean, they've seen thousands of murders on TV, every swear word you can imagine hundreds of times, and more than likely they're experiencing desires in that way only a hyperactive pituitary can deliver. Surely any book they actually want to read past the first page would be another bit of exposure to the great wide world in a relatively safe way. If I had kids that age, I might want to discuss a book with them if I felt it covered difficult topics, but...Huckleberry Finn? C'mon.
posted by maxwelton at 11:18 PM on June 20, 2007


girlzone
posted by Meatbomb at 3:14 AM on June 21, 2007


I did this sort of thing elsewhere and generated massive lists of books, films, albums, and TV shows...

Have there been similar aksme questions here?
posted by chuckdarwin at 4:45 AM on June 21, 2007


For me, it's not the content that bothers me about Huck Finn, maxwelton. I think kids should be able to read whatever they want, and if a 12-year-old girl found and read that book, and it spoke to them, then that's wonderful. But it's another story when compiling a list to specifically recommend to 12-year-olds. If it's really a list for 12-year-olds, I'd want a list where anyone at about a 6th grade reading level can pick any book and trust it's going to be at least readable to them. If you include too wide a range of reading levels, some kids will pick one or two books up, see they're way too young or old for them, and won't trust the rest of the list.

I think Mark Twain is a great recommendation specifically for kids that are advanced at reading and are looking for more challenging reads than what their classmates are reading. But they're not kids' books.

Another good option might be to have three sections to the list--the main list, an "if you haven't read these yet, go back and check them out" list of lower reading level stuff, and a list for more advanced readers.
posted by lampoil at 5:21 AM on June 21, 2007


I read Judy Blume when I was a kid, and I'm a boy. In fact, I loved Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing so much, I sought out some of her other books at the school library (Blubber, Otherwise Known As Sheila the Great). I loved them all. It wasn't until I started reading Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret that I began to even suspect there existed a thing called 'chick lit', and that I had been happily, hungrilly consuming it for weeks. I dropped it like a hot potato. Not long after, I signed up for Pee Wee football, a hobby to which I would devote all of my time and energy for the next several years of my life. In retrospect, I should have just kept reading Judy Blume.
posted by Atom Eyes at 9:16 AM on June 21, 2007


IMHO...

Decently interesting: A huge list of everyone piping up with their favorite books (which may or may not be life-changing and may or may not be appropriate for a 12-year-old girl).

Fascinating and read-able: A single list extracted from the 100+ comments, pared down into several categories perhaps, with an all-time top five or ten books. I would much rather see "From The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankenweiler" as #3 on the list and here's a short blurb on why, rather than scrolling through everyone's comment of "I loved that book, too!!!"

Might just be me, but it's that kind of organization and attention that could make the difference between a really interesting read and repetitive chatfilter.

Any volunteers? =P
posted by Zephyrial at 10:23 AM on June 21, 2007


That's pretty much what the chapter will be when I'm done with it!
posted by mothershock at 11:24 AM on June 21, 2007


@mothershock: Yay! =)
posted by Zephyrial at 1:49 PM on June 21, 2007


The problem with asking this community for a list of books for 12-year-olds is that most members of this community were probably not typical in their literacy or cognitive abilities.
posted by acoutu at 4:00 PM on June 21, 2007


hey, who you calling stoopid
posted by found missing at 4:18 PM on June 21, 2007


12-year-old girl changed-your-life books

Lolita?
posted by dgaicun at 2:00 AM on June 22, 2007


I read all the Judy Blume there was in the school library, not knowing much better, until i got to Deenie and it taught me what "come" meant. In that moment I discovered that I was beyond Judy Blume both in literary focus and sexuality. That trend continued, I'd like to think.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 10:49 PM on June 26, 2007


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