YA Novel - Gone With The Wind References?

June 1, 2007 8:21 PM

Name This Book: I've been trying to track down a YA book I remember reading in middle school. The two main characters are best friends who both love the novel Gone With The Wind.

I've googled everything I can think of (which admittedly isn't much) but I can't seem to find this book. The main character of the novel is a young middle-school age girl. She's best friends with another girl, and they both love the novel Gone With The Wind. They would quote the novel to each other and talk about situations in their life in the context of the book (i.e. boys, Rhett Butler). I don't remember many of the other plot details - I'm pretty sure there was some standard YA family drama or growing-up pains, although I remember the book as a whole having a pretty light touch.

Unfortunately the most memorable thing to me is the book talk, which makes it pretty hard to find now. Being a great reader, I loved it because it was the first thing I read which had characters who treated a book the way I treated books with my best friend - talking about everything as if it had happened to us and discussing the characters as though we knew them in real life.

I read it in the early nineties, if that helps. Thanks!

posted by warble to writing & language (8 answers total)

The Outsiders. When Johnie and Ponyboy have to flee to the country, Johny reads the story to Ponyboy.
posted by willnot at 8:40 PM on June 1, 2007

Sorry, there weren't any middle-school girls in it though, so that probably isn't it.
posted by willnot at 8:41 PM on June 1, 2007

There's a book called "The Most Wonderful Movie in the World" by Barbara Ford -

"Moira, a seventh-grader in a predominantly Irish Catholic school, struggles with her conscience because of her desire to see the movie Gone with the Wind, classed "B" by the Legion of Decency"

Kirkus Reviews If seventh grader Moira Flynn were a Unitarian, as is her best friend, Jane, she'd be allowed to see Vivien Leigh in Gone With the Wind, the most wonderful movie in the world. But Moira is Catholic and the Legion of Decency has rated the movie objectionable, so Jane is going to the movie with another girl. Moira must wrestle with her conscience--if she sneaks out to see the movie will it be a mortal sin? The story starts off a little stiffly, too obviously setting up the conflict through dialogue in the first chapter. Then Ford (The Eagles' Child, 1991) warms to the tale and Moira soon emerges as a likeable and very real girl, with all the innocence befitting the 1940s small-town setting. Some of the minor Catholic characters remain fairly typecast; others, including Moira's mother, reveal unexpected sides. Contemporary readers may have different concerns from Moira's but will be delighted by her sincere efforts to find a way around the rules and the resolution of her conflicting feelings.

Not exactly a "light touch" kinda book, and this is more about loving the movie than the book, but could that be it?
posted by icontemplate at 8:50 PM on June 1, 2007

Is it one of the Anastasia Krupnik books? They were by Lois Lowry, and I seem to recall that, in at least one of the books, Anastasia was obsessed with GWTW.
posted by lunasol at 6:30 AM on June 2, 2007

I am sure I read this book, too, though I can't remember anything helpful. Did it involve the girls travelling to Atlanta?
posted by joannemerriam at 8:42 AM on June 2, 2007

Wow. I found the Anastasia Krupnik book via Google book search and after reading a few pages of Anastasia Has the Answers, I'm nearly positive that's it. I can't believe I didn't remember that it was a Lois Lowry book, because she was one of my favorite authors as a kid. Thank you so much!
posted by warble at 9:58 AM on June 2, 2007

Are you sure it wasn't Number of the Stars? Not exactly light touch family drama (it's about World War II) but I am almost certain (it's been awhile since I've read it, but it used to be one of my favorites) that the girls in the books (Annemarie and her friend Ellen, who is Jewish and has to flee to Sweden to escape the Nazis - I think I have the names more or less right) talk about GWTW, and the little sister (Kirstie?) maybe has Scarlett and Melanie paper dolls or something?
It's the same author as the Anastasia Krupnik series, so if GWTW plays a role in both that would make sense. I only read the first Anastasia book though (another favorite of mine) so if there was GWTW in one of the other ones I wouldn't know.
posted by naoko at 10:53 PM on June 2, 2007

Yay, glad I cold help! I adored Lois Lowry's books...
posted by lunasol at 3:43 PM on June 3, 2007