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Feb 26, 2010

Nostalgic Friday: Lois Duncan books

Welcome back to Nostalgic Friday! Since I love all things historical (culturally, physically, and personally) I do a post on Fridays honoring some awesome book that is a bit older. Many of them are books I enjoyed in my teens and others are books that I discovered as an adult that I think are relevant to YA readers.

This week I am doing something a bit different and just covering some of the awesome novels (a couple which were made into movies) that I grew up reading by Lois Duncan. This woman was phenomenal. She wrote so many books on varying subjects covering things from contemporary YA to more science-fictiony plots. My favorite four books by her are listed below with a summary from Goodreads.


Daughters of Eve was released in 1979.

Sworn to Secrecy. Bound By Loyalty.

It's the high school's most exclusive club--but now a twisted mind is leading it. Who will be the first victim?


A Gift of Magic was released in 1979.

When the old woman died, she left each of her grandchildren something very special. For Kirby, the gift of dance. For Brendon, the gift of music. And for Nancy, the most extraordinary gift of all . . . the gift of magic.


I Know What You Did Last Summer was released in 1973.

This is the story of four teenagers who make a desperate pact to conceal their responsibility for a hit-and-run accident. Unfortunately, someone else was there; someone else saw, and they don't think it was an accident.

The movie, by the same title, was released in 1997. It starred Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prince, Jr. and Ryan Phillippe.


Killing Mr. Griffin was released in 1978.

High school can be tough. But with teachers like Mr. Griffin it can seem impossible.
They only planned to scare him. But sometimes even the best-laid plans go wrong.

The movie, entitled "Teaching Mrs. Tingle," was released in 1999. It starred
Helen Mirren, Katie Holmes, and Barry Watson.


These were my favorite books by Lois Duncan and they still reign pretty supreme over many books I have read. They were fun, quick reads that I find myself reaching back for time to time. While the characters weren't very deep and the storylines were kind of predictable, they were still good. Give one a shot if you've never picked one up before.

Do you have any stand-by authors from your youth?



3 comments:

Blaize said...

I loved A Gift of Magic and read it over and over!

Jen said...

I can't believe I had forgotten about some of these books. I'm enjoying your nostalgic postings. :)

By the way ---You've won a Splash award! You can pick it up here

Sarah (Book Reviews from Inside an Igloo) said...

hey! love your blog! Just wanted to let you know I'm "following" you now, nice to meet you!