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xv Introduction As an adolescent in the 1980s, the story of my identity as a reader can be described as hodge-podge, and it featured the best and worst the decade had to offer in regard to book choices. My family moved to the United States when I was in elementary school, and due to some language barriers, I struggled with reading. I finally became smitten with books toward the end of elementary school after meeting my then fictional best friend at my schoolÊs library·she was a titian-haired vixen with a power blue roaster and a tight team of mystery solving friends, and I wanted to be just like her. I can honestly say that Nancy Drew turned me into a reader, and from that point on, books mattered to me. After repeatedly working my way through NancyÊs adventures, I moved my reading needle significantly by consuming an equal measure of very adult novels that had been made for TV movies ( The Thorn Birds and Lace ), but around the same time, I also discovered S.E. HintonÊs The Outsiders and Judy BlumeÊs body of work for older readers. From those years, I can remember rereading Tiger Eyes over and over (something about that heart- breaking YA novel wouldnÊt let me go, and it satisfied my need to work through DaveyÊs grief with her), but it was BlumeÊs Forever that had the most profound effect. Given to me by my mother as an accidental twelfth birthday gift, this novel was nothing like Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing Forever explored teen sexuality and first experiences so honestly that I remember these things: first, I reread it a number of times not just because of the candid way it approached an intimate physical and emotional relationship between two teenagers, but it also answered so many questions I had that felt I had no place asking the grownups in my life. Long before knowing IÊd spend part of my career serving as a teen librarian, I enthusiastically shared BlumeÊs novel with my girlfriends as I knew theyÊd also be equally appreciative of this honest portrayal of sexuality and first experiences. The rest of my teen years left me obsessed with the 1980s iconic book series, Sweet Valley High , and in the lives of the Wakefield twins, I realized I longed to escape my pedantic teen life stuck in Oklahoma and run away to the seemingly glamorous high school scene in fictional Sweet Valley, California.