Heartbreaking Kids Books We Loved in the 80s

The Shrinking of Treehorn

Florence Parry Heide, 1971

Treehorn has some issues, the least among them his unique name. Treehorn has - by all accounts - loving parents and a warm home. What he lacks however, is attention in that he is literally shrinking before their very eyes and they seem not the least bit interested. I know we all get busy and many things our children say go unheard, but I'd like to think if my children were suddenly small enough to fit into a teacup I would at very least take them to a walk-in clinic. 

The book has beautiful pen and ink images, and the black and white illustrations underscore the simplicity of the text. Poor Treehorn. He's so accepting of his fate and it makes my heart hurt. I want to put him in my pocket and keep him as a little pet. 

Tissue Factor: 3 trips to the macrame owl-covered tissue box.

Beat the Turtle Drum

Constance C. Greene, 1976

I'm a going to spoil both the book and your day:

Some sad shit is about to be said....

..... get ready .....

This books is a story about two close and loving young sisters, 11 and 13, and the devastation brought on by the sudden and tragic death of one. I read this book when I was the same age as one of the main characters and I can remember sitting in my bedroom alone, thinking "What the &*%$ just happened here?"

In a word, the death scene and subsequent grief-filled summer are shattering. The simply told story from the perspective of one of the sisters does more to describe longing and loss than almost anything I've read since. 

Tissue Factor: You better get a Costco size-box.

Go Ask Alice

Anon/Beatrice Sparks,1971

Initially marketed as an anonymous novel based on a true account, Go Ask Alice is a fascinating story about how drugs can really fuck you up. While the real author has since been "discovered" and the novel is now marketed as fiction, the morale of the story rings true. 

As a teenager I loved this book. It was scary and thrilling and had me feeling pretty good about my milque-toast by comparison life choices. Re-reading the book as a mother, my feeling were decidedly more "there but for the grace of God go I." 

Do you have teenagers? They need to read this book. 

Tissue Factor: Kids: 1/5 tissues; if you're reading as a parent: Bring back up. 

The Outsiders

S. E. Hinton, 1967

If you attended school in North America between 1970 and...well, today... you've read The Outsiders, seen the movie, and maybe even had the poster. The late 60s novel gained a massive following a decade into it's print, and it's been controversial since. Kids as young as 14 years-old drink, smoke, and participate in gang violence and some pretty anti-establishment behaviour. It's astonishing to think the author was only 15 when she started the novel and 16 when she completed it.

I have a 16 year-old. She's completed several thousand bottles of hair conditioner.

The Outsiders is sharp around the edges and it hurts to read, and it provides this litmus test for literary respect - if you recognize this reference, you have mine: "Stay gold, Ponyboy." 

Tissue Factor: Like that feeling you had the time your dog chewed open a bottle of painkillers from your wisdom tooth extraction and you thought you were going to have to tell your kids their beloved dog died. (She's fine; I'm $700 poorer.) 

Where the Lillies Bloom

Vera and Bill Cleaver, 1970

A dirt poor family literally scraping the land to survive in the Appalachian mountains... that's sad enough to make this book qualify for this list. BUT WAIT; THERE'S MORE.

Add a dead mother, a dying father - no wait; now he's dead too - four kids under the age of 16 who the now deceased dad wants to stay together, a creepy landlord who wants to marry one of the young daughters, and the sad reality that natural talent means pretty much nothing when you have zero means an no personal agency to cultivate it. 

I need a drink. 

Tissue Factor: "Had to call in sick because serious cry face eye bags" levels.