I think we read this in class, late 80s or early 90s. It was some tweenish melodrama, if I remember. I don't even remember if I liked it.
It starts with this teen girl whose family is poor. Something about how her dad had a good factory job, but his wages stayed the same while everything got more expensive. Then there's a heartbreaking scene where someone, her dad or grandpa is taking cans they've collected to the recycling station at the dump (remember those?), and the back comes off the pickup and dumps them all over the road. So her dad/granddad is scrambling to pick them off the road when the popular kids drive by and start mocking them, then a cop shows up, something happens...maybe he's arrested?
Anyway, in the next part she has a brother who has downs or autism or something, and he goes missing. Maybe after she yelled at him, or someone teased him. And she has to go find him in the wilderness. And the guy she has a crush on is out there too and finds her and helps her. She thought he was stuck up, but it turns out he's not, and maybe he had some weird secret? Dia-beet-us perhaps? Adventures may be had.
Man, this seems like a sad book. I might have read it during this extend phase in my early teens where I read sad books on purpose. At least this didn't have any cancer in it. I read a lot of cancer books.
Anyone read it or remember what it was called? I tried googling, but I'm not getting anything. I could swear this was a pretty popular book, and maybe it was made into a tv movie.

Re: does anyone remember (YA book)?
I read this book and now it's going to drive me crazy.
This post did prompt me to Google Newbery Medal Winners and I found so many books I used to love that I had forgotten about, including The Westing Game and From The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Also on the list is A Wrinkle In Time...but I re-read that a few years ago and got angry again that the ending was so quick and wrapped up in like 3 chapters.
"Once I got a bath bomb that, once exploded, filled the tub with confetti. Little sharp metallic pieces of confetti. The product description said nothing about confetti. Oh look, there's a tiny, sharp metallic blue star stabbing me in the labia. HOW RELAXING. " - NoisyPenguin
Someday I'll get through a Xmas without thinking about the mom in "You Shouldn't Have to Say Goodbye."
(If you didn't read it, mom has cancer, is dying. Wants to open Xmas presents a day early, just in case. Daughter throws a fit. Mom dies on Xmas. This might be why I now hate* sad movies.)
*and/or laugh at
"The meek shall inherit the earth" isn't about children. It's about deer. We're all going to get messed the fuckup by a bunch of cloned super-deer.- samfish2bcrab
Sometimes I wonder if scientists have never seen a sci-fi movie before. "Oh yes, let's create a super species of deer. NOTHING COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG." I wonder if State Farm offers a Zombie Deer Attack policy. -CaliopeSpidrman
I think you should post it here:
http://www.loganberrybooks.com/stump.html
"Once I got a bath bomb that, once exploded, filled the tub with confetti. Little sharp metallic pieces of confetti. The product description said nothing about confetti. Oh look, there's a tiny, sharp metallic blue star stabbing me in the labia. HOW RELAXING. " - NoisyPenguin
This post makes me want to see if Lurlene McDaniel books are available on Kindle.
EDIT: They are!!!!!!!!!!!! http://www.amazon.com/Lurlene-McDaniel/e/B000AP7LGG
Husbands should be like Kleenex: Soft, strong, and disposable.
I've actually been skimming that to see if anyone else has already.
But it's nighttime slow and I mostly wanted to chat favorite tween melodramas.
BTW, if you get back into L'Engle don't read any of the Seraphim (sp?) books. I don't remember why, but the endings made me stabby.
"The meek shall inherit the earth" isn't about children. It's about deer. We're all going to get messed the fuckup by a bunch of cloned super-deer.- samfish2bcrab
Sometimes I wonder if scientists have never seen a sci-fi movie before. "Oh yes, let's create a super species of deer. NOTHING COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG." I wonder if State Farm offers a Zombie Deer Attack policy. -CaliopeSpidrman
I think I had every single one of her books. (ETA: That were out then. Holy crap, that was a long list.) In fact, I think I found them in a box and finally donated them only in the last year or so.
Wasnt it a ring of endless light and many waters? After the bible stories.
The only two f'ed up YA books I remember are Dicey's Song, Homecoming, and Pinballs
Edit: I think they were all turned into Afterschool Specials. Those were big in the eary 80's. Oh, and Tough Love. That was definitely an Afterschool Special.
Now I'm reminiscing.
I just remembered another awful one: her older brother gets run over by a lawnmower and dies. I don't remember anything else.
What the hell was I reading????
"The meek shall inherit the earth" isn't about children. It's about deer. We're all going to get messed the fuckup by a bunch of cloned super-deer.- samfish2bcrab
Sometimes I wonder if scientists have never seen a sci-fi movie before. "Oh yes, let's create a super species of deer. NOTHING COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG." I wonder if State Farm offers a Zombie Deer Attack policy. -CaliopeSpidrman
That sounds like that movie Man in the Moon with Reese Witherspoon. Jason or Jeremy London got caught in the riding mower.
Gah, I read all of these too. Why did we all sit around reading about dying children?! Baby Alicia is Dying was my favorite. So sad!
Baby Boxer is coming! 5.23.12
www.focushunting.com
Holy crap, I LOVED Homecoming. LOVED.
Mouse, there's also a Goodreads group you can post to and they'll try and help you out. They found my favorite middle school book: http://www.amazon.com/Royal-Pain-Point-Ellen-Conford/dp/0590438212
I bet her FUPA's name is Shane, like the gunslinger/drifter of literature.--HappyTummy
Bethie, I LOVED that book and still have my old copy.
"Once I got a bath bomb that, once exploded, filled the tub with confetti. Little sharp metallic pieces of confetti. The product description said nothing about confetti. Oh look, there's a tiny, sharp metallic blue star stabbing me in the labia. HOW RELAXING. " - NoisyPenguin
Ugh, like Bridge to Terabithia, which I always hated.
Royal Pain?! I ordered a used copy off Paperback Swap a few years ago. This one too: http://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Shopping-Laurel-Leaf-Contemporary-Fiction/dp/0440980992
The mannequins come alive at night!
I bet her FUPA's name is Shane, like the gunslinger/drifter of literature.--HappyTummy
Yes! And OMG OMG, I've been tryin to figure out the name of that book for years!!!! I loved that one too.
This thread makes me so happy!!!!
"Once I got a bath bomb that, once exploded, filled the tub with confetti. Little sharp metallic pieces of confetti. The product description said nothing about confetti. Oh look, there's a tiny, sharp metallic blue star stabbing me in the labia. HOW RELAXING. " - NoisyPenguin
YAY! The Mall book description cracks me up. The were running from the KING COBRA GANG. lolz!
I bet her FUPA's name is Shane, like the gunslinger/drifter of literature.--HappyTummy
KIng Cobra Gang made me LOL.
Did you ever read this series? It's was by a bunch of different authors with pretty much the same plot line for all of them but I had to rush out and buy the new one everytime I got cash.
http://www.amazon.com/Do-Love-Stories-Elizabeth-Chandler/dp/0553492756/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1329404822&sr=1-1
"Once I got a bath bomb that, once exploded, filled the tub with confetti. Little sharp metallic pieces of confetti. The product description said nothing about confetti. Oh look, there's a tiny, sharp metallic blue star stabbing me in the labia. HOW RELAXING. " - NoisyPenguin
I bet her FUPA's name is Shane, like the gunslinger/drifter of literature.--HappyTummy
You are mixing up two different books.
I have no clue about the book in your first paragraph, but the second paragraph is The Summer of The Swans by Beverly Byers. I've kept all my books my whole life for some reason. It's still a really good book LOL
Mmm, I don't think that's it. At least I don't remember anything about swans or a lake.
The same themes keep popping up in my searches: dead mom, absent dad, alcoholism, c-c-cancer, handicapped brother. Pick three to four, for bonus points give the girl long hair and a boy's name.
There's another shopping mall one too, by Zilpha Keatley Snyder (I loved, loved her from ages 9-13): http://www.amazon.com/Eyes-Fishbowl-Zilpha-Keatley-Snyder/dp/0440400600
"The meek shall inherit the earth" isn't about children. It's about deer. We're all going to get messed the fuckup by a bunch of cloned super-deer.- samfish2bcrab
Sometimes I wonder if scientists have never seen a sci-fi movie before. "Oh yes, let's create a super species of deer. NOTHING COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG." I wonder if State Farm offers a Zombie Deer Attack policy. -CaliopeSpidrman
No, they sound really similar. I think it's why I haven't found it yet. And it is possible that I'm remembering two different books because I would read 3-4 books at a time and then remember them later as one really convoluted plot.
Besides remembering YA books is fun. So many books that meant so much, but not because they were supposed to be staggering works of genius, but they reflected something real and secret in us.
Bethie, did you ever read The Girl With Silver Eyes? For some reason I picture you really liking that one.
"The meek shall inherit the earth" isn't about children. It's about deer. We're all going to get messed the fuckup by a bunch of cloned super-deer.- samfish2bcrab
Sometimes I wonder if scientists have never seen a sci-fi movie before. "Oh yes, let's create a super species of deer. NOTHING COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG." I wonder if State Farm offers a Zombie Deer Attack policy. -CaliopeSpidrman
OH gosh. That rings some real loud bells in my head. Did they send her to therapy afterwards?
The poster formerly known as PDXPhotoGrl
OK, the book I am thinking of is Nobody's Fault by Patricia Hermes. If it's not that, there are more YA books about brothers getting run over by lawnmowers than one would think.
"Emily gets tired of the tricks that her older brother Matthew is constantly playing on her, and decides to try and get even with him by putting a dead snake in his bed. In the midst of her plan, something terrible happens to her brother and Emily fears that it is her fault. She finds it difficult to accept what happens to her brother and struggles to tell the truth about what happened on that terrible day."
"When a young girl feels crushed with guilt after her brother dies as a result of an accident with a lawnmower, she is treated by a child psychiatrist who helps her to understand and accept her feelings"
The poster formerly known as PDXPhotoGrl
Dupe
The poster formerly known as PDXPhotoGrl
There's a "brother got run over by the lawnmower" genre?! I wish I could work for an 80s YA publisher. Even as a cold submission reader.
Yes, I do think it was that one. I seem to remember the dead snake. I think it was group therapy and there was someone there because her cat died? Awww-kward.
"The meek shall inherit the earth" isn't about children. It's about deer. We're all going to get messed the fuckup by a bunch of cloned super-deer.- samfish2bcrab
Sometimes I wonder if scientists have never seen a sci-fi movie before. "Oh yes, let's create a super species of deer. NOTHING COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG." I wonder if State Farm offers a Zombie Deer Attack policy. -CaliopeSpidrman