I cried regularly, hoping for reprieve from the every-other-weekend away from home model, as it meant my young life was upended and moved around more frequently than any of my friends’ lives, as well as more frequently than any I’d ever seen on TV, in movies, or in books. The Baby-Sitters Club was a rarity, and it was through those books I found my sisters and fellow girls who had family structures that both mirrored mine and were different from mine. Despite the fact many marriages ended in divorce at the time-roughly 50% by some numbers-I rarely, if ever, saw divorced parents in the books I read. Growing up, my childhood wasn’t especially traumatic, but it was challenging. While the former was certainly true, particularly as it relates to fat phobia (every single one of the books I read detested fat people numerous times), what stood out to me as revolutionary was how Norma Klein offered portrayals of various family structures in ways that celebrated, rather than decried or belittled, difference. I also prepared myself to navigate the tricky space between nostalgia so many had for Klein’s books and the content that might be challenged by today’s standards. Going into the project, I suspected I’d find something special. Many of those whose work I respect in the YA work-critics, enthusiasts, and authors alike-credit Klein for being a legacy in the field. It was such a mature read, even years past its reissue, and it felt right to give even more attention to Klein’s work.
I grew up reading Judy Blume, and it was her blurb on the cover of a Lizzie Skurnick reissue of Klein’s Domestic Arrangements that originally had me curious about the book, and Klein more broadly. I was a tween and a teen in the ’90s and early ’00s, a little bit outside the peak of Klein’s popularity with readers. Klein wrote books similar to the work of Judy Blume, pushing boundaries and digging into topics that were so often not approached with honesty and forthrightness for young readers in the 1970s and 1980s. This year’s project focused on the young adult fiction of Norma Klein, and the seven books I read became the basis for Hey YA: Extra Credit, a(n admittedly not so) short form podcast that dug into each of the books. Summer, with its long days of light, give such a nice space for digging in and reflecting upon the books that hold up, as well as the ones that maybe don’t. Each summer, I like to dig into a book or series of books from childhood that I’ve either always meant to read or think I should revisit.
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