Talkin 'Bout My Generation Archives

More Teen Angst for #FridayFiction

October 8, 2021 Mary Kelly Friday Fiction, Talkin 'Bout My Generation Leave a comment

Class Pictures
Sachs
1980

We have more teen angst for #fridayfiction today. Pat and Lolly met in kindergarten. The story is told by Pat. Using the class pictures from each year, Pat details the rocky road of this friendship. Pat is from a single parent household that is struggling and Lolly is from a wealthy family. Lolly’s mother isn’t a big fan of Pat, until she selected for a gifted/talented class. In the beginning, Pat was the popular one and by the time junior high school rolled around, Lolly was the beauty.

For the middle school crowd, this has that drama that most girls can relate to at that age. I don’t think there is a woman alive (maybe the guys too?) that didn’t have anxiety about who they were and where they fit in. Teen and pre-teen angst is always good fodder for the young adult set.

Teen Pregnancy with Drugs!

August 12, 2021 Mary Kelly Talkin 'Bout My Generation, Vice Patrol 6 comments

Teen Guide to Pregnancy, Drugs, and Smoking
Hawksley
1989

My inner snotty self wants to joke that you should save the drugs and smoking until after the kids are born, since that’s when you will really need it, especially during the teen years.

Teen Money Advice

August 11, 2021 Mary Kelly Making a Living, Talkin 'Bout My Generation 18 comments

The Teen-Age Consumer’s Guide
Dollars and Cents
McGough
1975

This is something from my teen years. It’s actually the kind of thing my parents would want me to read. I just want to chuckle at the prices of the mundane items. 25 cents for school supplies? Since I was 15 years old in 1975, I feel confident in comparing my budget strategies from then.

Sober Teens

July 30, 2021 Mary Kelly Talkin 'Bout My Generation, Vice Patrol 8 comments

Teen Guide to Staying Sober
Chiu
1998

The Drug Abuse Prevention Series is one that has popped up regularly. My gripe was mostly the poor (read: cheap) pictures that illustrated the books. Sometimes they were just odd, others seemed to have nothing to do with the topic. I think they looked dated even when they were fresh from the publisher. Take a look at some of these companion titles from this series:

Time to retire the series or at least get some newer material.

Motherhood for Teens

July 6, 2021 Mary Kelly Ladies only!, Talkin 'Bout My Generation 6 comments

Teen Motherhood
Hammerslough
1995

Think of your average pregnancy and childbirth book and strip down to about 15 pages. This is the book you will get. Teen motherhood is an issue worthy of a book. I also know that teens are woefully unprepared (as are adults for that matter), for the reality of parenting and changes to their body. This book gently tries to avoid judgment and just hand out information. Nice objective, but it falls short.

Millennials in America

May 10, 2021 Holly Talkin 'Bout My Generation 3 comments

Millennials in America
Scardamalia
2017

Submitter: I found this book (clearly discarded) in our returns this morning. My (millennial) coworker exclaimed that it had been on the “free books, please take them” cart in the lobby earlier this week. She had picked it up thinking maybe it would be funny, but thought better about lugging home an outdated textbook. Apparently a library patron did take it home, but found it so unamusing that they promptly gave it back. I put it back in the discards area. I almost threw it away, but I guess I’m glad I didn’t. Our Friends of the Library group is actually starting to collect discards for book sales again now, and I looked this book up, and it is still for sale for $100.00.

Holly: This isn’t bad for an academic library, but a bit of a snoozefest for a public library collection.

Bad Teens

March 23, 2021 Mary Kelly Talkin 'Bout My Generation 9 comments

Teen Violence
Lang
1991

Terrible teens are doing some seriously bad stuff and this book is here to tell you all about it. This is one of those social science books built for a research report. They usually come as a set of “current issues” that are targeted for middle school/high school. They all generally follow the same structure.

This book outlines those possible “causes” of violence in teens including: Nazis, gangs, video games, and drugs. There is a bit of data or quotes from articles about the topic. Nothing truly earth shattering. Also, it wasn’t as teen specific as the title would indicate.

Bombed and Buzzed in 1976

March 8, 2021 Mary Kelly Talkin 'Bout My Generation, Vice Patrol 3 comments

Bombed Buzzed Smashed or Sober
A Book About Alcohol
Langone
1976

I could tell immediately from the font of the word “Bombed” that I had myself a lovely book from the 1970s. Almost every poster I had as a teen used that font. This is one of those teen nonfiction books used to write research papers. It’s okay. There are no pictures or anything interesting to break up the text. Newer books at least have a drunk teen on the cover.