G is for (Books About) Growing Up #atozchallenge

For A to Z 2018, my theme is Books About ____. If you’re stopping by from your own A to Z blog, feel free to leave a link. If you need help with how to do that, you can look here.

If you’re someone looking to read a lot of great blogs, here’s the link for the A to Z challenge.

With the frequency that young adult fiction shows up on this blog, it may come as no surprise that a lot of them have themes about growing up. We all get older, but we don’t all get wiser… at least not at the same rate. I could have done all YA books, but I decided to mix it up a bit. It’s more fun that way.

Everything, Everything, by Nicola Yoon (YA contemporary): Maddy is literally allergic to everything, so she’s not allowed to go outside or interact with other people. She’s lonely but has figured out how to build a life for herself. Growing up often means questioning what people have told us and learning about the world for ourselves, and that’s what Maddy ultimately has to do when she starts developing a friendship with Olly, the boy who moves in next door. I was in Las Vegas, hanging out with a friend I hadn’t seen in years, and I still couldn’t put this book down. I’m pretty sure she’s forgiven me.

Pride & Prejudice, by Jane Austen (literary classic): Elizabeth and Darcy both grow up throughout this book, learning that the assumptions they’ve made about others (but mostly each other) are not correct. I love this book for that reason (and many others). There are so many adults out there who would benefit from learning this lesson.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum (classic): First off, I have to say this… the book is VERY different from the movie. The same main characters are there, and the same basic thing happens, but the book has so much more. When the book starts, Dorothy gets swept away to the land of Oz, and all she wants is for someone to send her back home. She (and eventually the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion) go to seek out Oz to give them the things they want. Along the journey, they have to find their courage and will to fight through obstacles. In the process, Dorothy learns about herself and what’s really important.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith (bildungsroman): I read this last year for the Popsugar challenge, “a genre you’ve never heard of.” Bildungsroman is “a novel dealing with someone’s formative years or spiritual education.” It follows Francie from the time she’s about 11 up until about 16. She’s growing up in the slums with a mother who works too hard and a father who’s a drunk. But through it all, Francie finds ways to stay happy and survive. It’s a quiet novel with little action, but Francie is so compelling that it kept me turning pages.

What books about growing up do you love?

First Love Blogfest

Welcome to the First Loves Blogfest.  I get to talk about my first loves in the following categories: music, movie, book, and person.  Some of these are easier than others for me, but they all bring back good memories.

Person

My first great love was Richard.  We must have looked ridiculous together, as he was about 6’4″ and I was 5’0″ (then and now).  He was much more popular than I was, but it seemed to work as we were together for two years, and in high school, that’s like a century.  Different interests, different approaches to life eventually made us drift apart, but I’ve never forgotten him, and I hope that wherever life took him, he’s doing well.  I recently found our old love letters, and though there’s nothing to make me blush in them,  they were still nice to find.

Music

My first great music love was the Beatles.  Before that, I casually liked different music and songs, but nothing grabbed me.  It all started with “Hey Jude.”  I’m sure I heard it on the radio many times before the first time I really heard it.  After that, I started buying tapes and CDs.  I fell in love with Revolver, Rubber Soul, and Sergeant Pepper.  It would be several more years before I’d appreciate Abby Road and the White Album.  To this day, there’s nothing better than a Beatles song for me.

Book

This may be the hardest of the bunch for me, because I’m not sure I could pick just one!    If I were forced to choose, at gunpoint maybe, I’d probably choose Watchers, by Dean Koontz.  It’s my all time favorite book overall, and I think I read it for the first time when I was around 12.  Around the same time, I also read Watership Down, by Richard Adams, so that may have been my first beloved book.  Or, it could have been Jack and Jill by Louisa May Alcott.  Ha!  I talked about more than one book after all.

Movie

The first movie I remember really loving was The Wizard of Oz.  I loved all the songs and wished that I had a friend like The Scarecrow.  I can’t tell you how many times I asked my mom, “So was it a dream or was it real?”  Later, after I read the book by L. Frank Baum, I remember pointing out how different the movie was and being irritated that in the movie, they imply that it could have been a dream by incorporating people into Oz from her real life.  I still liked the movie after watching the book, but it wasn’t the same.

So, that’s all, folks.  These are my four first loves.  If you haven’t participated in the blogfest, I’d still love to hear about your “firsts” in comments.