This HaBO request is from Alyssa. She’s trying to track down a YA series she just can’t seem to remember. Trigger warning for the description below:
My small town library had a dismal selection of good YA, but in the early 90s I fell in love with a series they had. It was a group of teens and the writing was smart, funny, and real. I don’t remember specific plot lines, but do remember a couple of the characters distinctly because they were so different than anyone I knew in real life.
A biracial girl that had an older sister that she felt she could never live up to. At some point in the series she finds out her perfect sister actually tried to commit suicide because she felt so much pressure to be perfect, and she wears bracelets on both wrists to hide the scars. The character also gets a lot of crap for being biracial and has braids that she takes out and towards the end works at a home/care center for babies born with AIDS where she meets a sexy older guy.
A hippy type character whose father took her mothers last name and hyphenated? And there’s a scene I remember being hysterical where she brings a coconut to school for lunch and they all try and open it?
I remember the series ended on a cliffhanger and my library never got the next book, if there was one, in. I’ve googled so much and even convinced myself it had to be Katherine Applegate’s Girlfriends series, but I’ve read the first couple in the re-release (The Islanders) and it’s not the same kids!
Okay…MAYBE I know this one. My first guess is Ann M. Martin’s California Series, which follows a group of teens in CA. There’s a hippie-ish girl and a teen of color whose sister does volunteer work at a women’s shelter. I was addicted to this series and because of the serious subject matter, my grandparents refused to buy them for me. They came out in the late-nineties.
Oooh, Amanda, that might be it! I’m reading recaps and it seems like maybe? The covers also look familiar…will have to read more!
I read quite a few of the California series (maybe the first 8?) and most of that fits the description. But I would consider them mid to late 90s, I want to say the series started around 1997 or so.
There is another series that came out in the early 90s because I had a few of the books in 1994. Unfortunately I cannot remember the name of the series although I think the author’s name was Natalie or Natasha Gray (maybe). In this series the biracial girl’s mother was a cop and she got sent to live with her aunt and uncle whose daughter was a ballerina and had an eating disorder. There was also a Latina girl who was date raped at one point.One of the girl’s brother was in a band.
Missy!! The ballerina thing totally clicked for me – that sounds right?? Off to Google!