What was your favorite book series growing up in the 80's-90's?

[CynBeth]

VC Andrews still comes out with new books once or twice a year I believe written by someone else. I had forgotten to mention with my list of series before I also read Sleepover Friends and The Gymnasts.

 

[DodgerGirl]

Did you ever hear of a series called Aladdin Angelwings? It was a really cool book series that debuted in 1999 and focused on a team of little angels and an assistant archangel and they had to help children with problems and much like the movie It's A Wonderful Life when the little angels completed their tasks a bell would ring when they earned feathers for good deeds. The Aladdin Angelwings series was written by Donna Jo Napoli and it has nothing to do with Aladdin but it refers to a book publishing company named Aladdin which is how the series got it's name. I loved these books and had the whole set and the angels had different names like Little Angel Of Friendship and Little Angel Of Courage and so on. If you have the chance check these books out because they are wonderful

 

[amcnj]

I was past my tween years by the 80’s and 90’s. I did read the Narnia series as an adult, sometime within the last five years.

When I was young the only series I recall were the Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. Out of those I read a few of the Hardy Boys books.

 

[DodgerGirl]

by that time i was either reading kid's books to my students or my own kids so.............

the series i ended up with an entire set of which i still have to this day are the 'junie b jones'. they remind me of the beverly cleary 'ramona' spirit that was written in the OLD books ('55 and '68). i also liked the judy blume 'fudge' books (and the books from back in the early '70's that they were sequels to).

I do remember the Junie B. Jones series of books and I always thought they were funny especially when Junie would make up clever nicknames for her family and friends. Like Junie would call her teacher Mrs. and the series was popular at the time. I also read the Bailey School Kids book series and I thought the book's titles were funny like Pirates Don't Wear Pink Sunglasses but the series was very clever and there was even a spinoff series called Bailey City Monsters too. In horse books I found three spinoffs of The Saddle Club but my favorite was Pony Tails because it was cute and it was about the junior riders at Pine Hollow and there was a teen series also called Pine Hollow as well

 

[nherbert]

The Chalet School, almost anything by Enid Blyton, Nancy Drew, Trixie Beldon, Little House on the Prairie, Narnia, omg I loved to read as kid, I would read these over and over (though admittedly mine are more from the 70s)

Great thread, I need to go find my old books

 

[DodgerGirl]

Did you ever hear of a book series called Cranberry Cousins? It was a series written by Christie Wells and it was set at a country inn ran by a mother and daughter and she and her cousins helped run the inn and it was a cool series and it kind of remind you of the sitcom Newhart and Cranberry Cousins came out in 1989

 

[DodgerGirl]

My obsession with the Little House On The Prairie books started when my teacher read us the first book Little House In The Big Woods and based on that book alone I was amazed at how Laura Ingalls Wilder's life began and got the entire Little House series set for Christmas as a little girl and I still have them today. My other favorite books were biographies of famous people and I liked the Childhood Of Famous Americans series and I have three of the books of that series one is of Pocahontas the other book is about gospel singer Mahalia Jackson and the last book is about Laura Ingalls Wilder and this series is still going strong today and it even has a Walt Disney biography book too. I wonder if many of you had this book series growing up as well?

 

[tvguy]

Not growing up, but my kids growing up, and not on your list. The Harry Potter books. My son was 10 when the first one came out in 1997 and he devoured it. So did my wife and I.

 

[DodgerGirl]

I loved Madeleine L'engle. The Meet the Austin's series was my favorite and I still read it every once in a while as an adult. Also the Wrinkle in Time series. I also loved Anne of Green Gables.

I had to read Anne Of Green Gables for a book assignment once and did a school project on the book too and it's a lovely book. I even saw the Avonlea series on Disney Channel to read more about Anne Of Green Gables and it made me love the book even more. Madeleine L'Engle I never really got into but I have heard of A Wrinkle In Time and it's nice. Harry Potter I read and once I read the entire first chapter in a CVS store once because when Mom would shop Dad and I used to go to the book section and CVS had all sorts of series and that's where I would buy the newest books and it was so cool

 

[pinkxray]

I started with Babysitters club little sister and Sweet Valley twins, and then moved up to Babysitters club and Sweet Valley High. I love Jessica and Elizabeth. I remember the tv show too.

I know I read Goosebumps, but I don’t recall reading all of them? I do remember Fear Street books by R.L. Stine. Those were awesome! I am surprised too that no one ever mentions those. I remember being around 12, on vacation with my family at Disney. I stayed up later than my sister and parents to finish reading a book, maybe about cheerleaders dying or something. I finished the book and went to bed, sharing a queen with my sister. She had a scrunchie in her hair that I was convinced was a skull. I don’t think I got much sleep that night. Some of those books were scary to young me, but they were soooo good.

Most of these books are still in bookcases at my mom’s house. DD19 no interest in any of them. DS9 just recently snagged the goosebumps books.

I loved reading as a kid so I did read most of the other series listed, but they weren’t my favorite. I also LOVED Roald Dahl books.

 

[Moliphino]

I LOVED Dear America books. I had all of those plus the Royal Diaries and most of the My Name is America books (the boy version). I even bought some as an adult when they re-launched the series.

 

[starvenger]

In the 80's, it was the Famous Five and Secret Seven by Enid Blyton.

90's, the Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey.

 

[barkley]

I liked Encyclopedia Brown

i think devouring these as a kid is the basis for my enjoyment of all the true crime docuseries that run these days.

My other favorite books were biographies of famous people

i remember my 3rd grade teacher had the entire scholastic set of these so i set a personal goal to read all of them. they were realy enjoyable.

 

[Praying Colonel]

I loved the early Tom Clancy/Jack Ryan books: Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, Cardinal of the Kremlin, etc.

 

[lanejudy]

I was in my teens by the 80s which is probably why I'm not familiar with most of the series mentioned in the poll. My favorite kids' series were Little House on the Prairie, the Bobbsey Twins and Trixie Belden. I also read pretty much all the Encyclopedia Brown, Judy Blume and Beverly Cleary books.

 

[DodgerGirl]

I discovered the Goosebumps series by accident at Target and I picked one of the books up and liked it and so I started collecting Goosebumps books and I thought they were cool. My dad liked some of RL Stine's books too and he got into the Goosebumps series too. I always thought the Goosebumps book titles were scary and I think that's what made Goosebumps a hit series and it helped RL Stine expand into kids books because before Goosebumps he wrote scary novels for the teen market with the Fear Street series and he did a kids series before Goosebumps began and I think the series was named Tales Of Fear Street but it was an empire for RL Stine to expand to writing kids books. I wonder due to the revival of the Goosebumps series on Disney+ the Goosebumps books will make a comeback?

 

[FreeTime]

Sweet Valley High
The Three Investigators
The Happy Hollister’s (these were my mother’s books)
Nancy Drew

 

[DodgerGirl]

I LOVED Dear America books. I had all of those plus the Royal Diaries and most of the My Name is America books (the boy version). I even bought some as an adult when they re-launched the series.

I'm also a fan of the Dear America Series and I bought my first Dear America book at Costco once and really enjoyed the series and I had to do reading assignments on each book for my mom and they were great stories. I never understood why they created so many spinoffs to Dear America like My Name Is America and My America and the Royal Diaries series and it even had it's own series on HBO for a short time as well. But I was surprised to see Dear America revived and was shocked to see a second part to The Winter Of Red Snow which was the first Dear America book I read for my mom's reading assignment. I think the next Dear America Series to be revived is Royal Diaries to add more famous queens and princesses to the series. But I was shocked to see new Dear America stories in the new revival of the series. I guess Scholastic is reviving Dear America books for a new generation of today