Do you remember Sunfire Romances? Those historical young girls with a gleam in their eye and two chaste boys chasing them? My favorite was Cassie, a white girl raised by the Mohawk* tribe, in love with a trapper, pursued by a blacksmith, trying to be part of both worlds. It turns out that the author, Vivian Schurfranz, wrote another one, Josie, which is actually quite hard to get your hands on.
Hard, that is, unless your local library buys ten books a year, and the majority of their YA holdings were published before I was a young adult. There she was, just staring up at me from the paperback rack. So I brought her home.
And now I'm afraid to reread Cassie, because if Josie is any indication, these babies don't hold up too well. I remember Cassie as compelling, but Josie is somewhat disjointed. On many levels there's nothing more wrong with it than with any book written 20 years ago for 13-year-olds, but that is not to say that I need to want to read them.
Except, of course, the Babysitter's Club.
So I dipped my toe in that nostalgic pool, and came out...well, wet. But it's okay. I'm wrapping up Fieldwork, which has inexplicably taken me a long time to read, and about which I will have more to say as I finish. Until then, dear reader, read on!
*Correction: it was the Iroquois tribe, and I apologize to Cassie, Vivian Schurfranz, and Native Americans everywhere for not paying more attention.
2 comments:
So those don't hold up. Do the Sweet Valley High ones? My favorite was #39 called, "Secret Admirer". Oh no! Does this mean the Two by Two romances won't either???-- they were the ones that you read from the girl's point of view and then flipped over to read from the boy's perspective. Dear lord, I had bad taste in books when I was a pre-teen!
Don't blame yourself--you had a hunger that needed feeding.
I bet SVH holds up, just because I remember them as being so young. I still like BSC books. I think it's because I remember Sunfire as being Real Grown-Up romance, and they're not, while I remember BSC as being kids books, which they are. If that makes sense?
Post a Comment