Louann fortuitously causes a scene at the mall while under Amy’s watch. A slight altercation at the mall plays out more dramatically than it possibly would have in real life, but for this story to go forward, Amy needed to be angry. Of course the author embellishes these messy moments to better illustrate her point. With this being the ‘80s and all, people can be insensitive or plain rude when they meet someone different from them. Amy thinks her loneliness is all because of her 11-year-old sister Louann, who has an intellectual disability. And like other kids her age, she has a hard time making friends. Adults reading this book can also relate to the main character, who feels trapped in a life situation she has no real control over.Īmy Treloar is a 12-year-old growing up in a town called Claiborne. Wright and her contemporaries knew how to pen a well-formed coming-of-age tale without talking down to the intended readership. It’s a good balance of both mature and adolescent content. The title of Wright’s 1983 novel seems too adult, however despite its target audience and largely young cast, The Dollhouse Murders isn’t exactly juvenile. Of all the creepy children’s stories she had published during that pivotal decade, her most well-known is undoubtedly The Dollhouse Murders. And if there was one author who helped launch and maintain this new trend of eerie encounters, it was Betty Ren Wright. On top of their usual concerns were now ghosts and other unnatural threats. But somewhere in the 1980s, the kids in these books started having less ordinary predicaments.

Classic children’s literature often reflects their young readers’ real-life issues at home and school.

I Like Being Alone by Betty Ren Wright