Books to Bridge the
Mother-Daughter Divide
by Stephanie Cohen
Like many of today’s reading-addicted moms, I measured my progress from early childhood into adulthood less by the birthdays I celebrated than by the books I loved along the way. Our generation leaned heavily on middle grade and young adult series to teach us how to navigate school, siblings, friendships, rivalries, parents, and those first awkward crushes. Those books we binged on in the 1970s and ’80s — while wearing neon slouch socks and acid-washed jeans, of course — were unforgettable classics. Remember Taffy Sinclair? If that doesn’t bring a walk-down-memory-lane smile to your face, how about Sweet Valley High, The Girls of Canby Hall, or Anastasia Krupnik?
But as one mom friend with two daughters said to me about these novels of our youth: “I feel like there is nothing comparable today!” Which makes it harder to bond with our own kids over a shared love of the same books. We want that intergenerational connection to our children — to have them understand the music we loved, the movies we watched, the celebs we swooned to, and for us to understand what will define their generation, too. But stories can be hard to translate over the decades. The books that we moms loved as girls don’t refer to iPhones and Snapchat. Can today’s hyper-connected kids really understand the alarm of a girl who must actually search for a missing friend rather than just texting to pin down her exact location? My own pre-teen daughter passed on all of my beloved childhood favorites — even the “new” Nancy Drews seemed old to her.
To be sure, our kids will all have their own favorites that they’ll push on their own daughters someday. For now, though, we’ve put together a fun guide to bridging the generational girl-book divide. These essential retro-mom reads are paired with modern-day picks sure to help you relate to your growing, changing middle grade daughter. And maybe — just maybe — they’ll help her to discover and understand those classic books that made you you.
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If you were a fan of Nancy Drew...
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Nancy Drew
Available from:The Nancy Drew brand has been updated and modernized numerous times with the introduction of Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew, Nancy Drew: All New Girl Detective, and the Nancy Drew Diaries. The Diaries series is filled with technology-appropriate references to laptops, smart phones, and YouTube. If that doesn’t work, try a Maggie Brooklyn mystery. Not surprisingly, Maggie lives in hip Brooklyn, where movie stars work on set on the local streets — definitely a faster-paced environment than Nancy’s sleepy hometown of River Heights.
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If you were a fan of Taffy Sinclair...
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The Against Taffy Sinclair Club
Who can forget Taffy Sinclair — the beautiful girl everyone loved to hate? The first book in the series, The Against Taffy Sinclair Club, was practically a primer on the complicated underworld of fifth grade mean girls and queen bees. The Taffy series eventually spun off into an equally addictive second series, the Fabulous Five, which you and your kids might enjoy exploring together. And for moms wanting a “nicer” girl world, pick up The Penderwicks series. It’s about four sisters — Skye, Jane, Rosalind and Batty — and their widowed father and dog.
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If you were a fan of Satin Slippers...
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Satin Slippers
For sporty girls stuck in the 1980s, the Satin Slippers, Silver Skates, and Gymnasts series were unforgettable. Today’s soccer/ice hockey/gymnastics girls turn more readily to Olympians like soccer star Alex Morgan and gymnast Dominique Moceanu for their sports-themed book fixes. Morgan writes The Kicks series, on which my 10-year-old is completely hooked. Gold medalist Moceanu, along with Alicia Thompson, pens the Go for Gold Gymnasts series.
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If you were a fan of Piers Anthony...
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Xanth series
Author Piers Anthony made the world of sci-fi addictive for me. Anthony’s 41-book series focused on the world of Xanth, where people sport unique magical abilities; toss in a bit of mythology, some quests, odd creatures, and grown-up conspiracies, and the result was out-of-this-world reading adventures. Today’s reigning king of mythological adventure is Percy Jackson. But other present-day fantasy masters include Kate O’Hearn, who pens the Pegasus series, and Polly Shulman, who offers up the fantastic Wells Bequest and Poe Estate. For younger readers, there is nothing as good as the high-volume BeastQuest series.
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If you were a fan of Encyclopedia Brown...
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Encyclopedia Brown
Available from:Intrepid boy detective Encyclopedia Brown loved solving mysteries with his kid detective agency. Today, he has some case-cracking competition. There is the fabulous Enola Holmes Mysteries series, starring the sister of Sherlock Holmes, who is being hunted down in gritty London by … her famous brother. There is also the tech-savvy brother-sister crime-busting duo Nick and Tesla, who show readers how to carry out experiments and build things while solving mysteries. Today’s readers can also binge on the adventures of the cousin sleuth team Mike and Kate, who investigate crimes at American baseball fields in The Ballpark Mysteries.
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If you were a fan of Judy Blume...
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Otherwise Known As Sheila the Great
Available from:Judy Blume was the coming-of-age queen back when today’s moms were hitting middle school. My friends and I read them in the back of the bus and in our rooms far away from our brothers, most definitely with the door locked. Who can forget Sheila the Great (remember her Slam Book?), Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, and Starring Sally J. Friedman as Herself? The closest thing to a slam book your daughters will come across in a book today is the diaries of Nikki Maxwell from The Dork Diaries.
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If you were a fan of Sweet Valley...
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Sweet Valley
Remember the beautiful Wakefield sisters? Jessica and Elizabeth walked us through the world of boys and romance, cheerleading, and sixth grade popularity contests in the Sweet Valley Twins. The sisters eventually graduated to Sweet Valley High and Sweet Valley Confidential. These series were all about serious binge reading — the Wakefields racked up more than 150 books before they even reached high school! Today, you can supply your daughter with a Sweet Valley fix by sending e-book versions to her Kindle. But if she’s just not into the series, try Because of Mr. Terrupt (and the follow-up books in the series) or The Fabled Fourth Graders of Aesop Elementary School (and its sequel, The Fabled Fifth Graders of Aesop Elementary School), all of which offer up a co-ed look at the mysteries and obstacles of middle school.
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If you were a fan of The Babysitter's Club...
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The Babysitter's Club
Then there was The Baby-Sitters Club series, which appeared in 1986. How else was a middle school girl going to make money back in the 1980s? This passionately pro-smart-girl, easy-to-love series featured four entrepreneurial friends from Connecticut — Kristy, Mary Anne, Claudia, and Stacey. But today’s middle school readers are far more likely to grab a book from The Cupcake Diaries series, where Katie Brown’s best friend is invited to join the PGC (Popular Girls Club) and Katie, left out, starts a club based on a love of … cupcakes.
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If you were a fan of Beverly Cleary...
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Beezus and Ramona
Beverly Cleary’s Ramona series still makes the rounds among plenty of young readers today. But equally appealing to today’s kids (or even more so) are the Clementine and Judy Moody series. Like Ramona, Clementine and Judy are elementary school girls with strong personalities and a knack for stirring family drama — and are all the more lovable for it.
Which books did you binge on when you were a kid? Have you been able to get your children to read them too?