Line #19 Literature/PenPals


1	''Pen Pals'' was a short-running late '80s/early '90s girls' series by Sharon Dennis Wyeth about four adolescent girls rooming together in an all-girls boarding school in rural New Hampshire. Desperate to find a way to meet some boys, they advertise in the school paper for boy penpals. The series details the girls' relationships with these boys, one another, other classmates, teacher and family members.
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3	'''The main characters'''
4	* Lisa [=McGreevy=] - Pennsylvania native whose parents are divorced; came to boarding school because her mother had once attended
5	* Shanon Davis - local girl from a poor family whose academic brilliance landed her a scholarship at the prestigious school
6	* Amy Ho - Asian-American punk rocker and songwriter, born in Taiwan but raised in New York City
7	* Palmer Durand - snobby rich blonde from Florida, also with divorced and emotionally distant parents
8	* Maxine "Max" Schloss - replaces Lisa after she decides to return home to be with her mother; child of a rich and famous comedian, yet down-to-earth and tries to hide her family connections
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10	'''Recurring secondary characters'''
11	* Rob - Lisa's penpal; an all-around nice guy
12	* Mars (Arthur) Martinez - Shanon's penpal; a goofy guy full of crazy schemes who is also intensely loyal and caring
13	* John Adams - a shy, poetic boy who is initially Palmer's penpal but later ends up Amy's
14	* Paul Grant - Max's penpal; just as shy and awkward as she is, although they clearly like one another
15	* Miss Prynn - the school's headmistress
16	* Maggie Grayson and Dan Griffith - two of the younger teachers, who are very popular among the students; they eventually marry
17	* Georgette Durand - Palmer's younger stepsister, who later attends the school; Palmer finds her annoying, although to the amusement of others, the two are very much alike
18	* Kate - an older girl who is idolized by Shanon, yet thought to be a nerd by the others
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21	!!The books provide examples of:
22	* AdultsAreUseless: Like most books in the genre, this series has the main characters running around doing just about everything on their own.
23	* AlphaBitch: Palmer, about 90% of the time
24	* AnnoyingYoungerSibling: Georgette, for Palmer. Hilariously, most of the annoying things that Palmer complains about Georgette doing are actually things she herself does.
25	* {{Bookworm}}: Shanon
26	* ClassTrip: Many, just like most other girls' series in this genre
27	* CostumePorn: Pretty much every book. It's a general shangri-la of hideous early '90s tween fashions.
28	* DaddyDidntShow: Palmer. Her divorced parents shower her with money and gifts, but are never really involved in her life.
29	* DoNotCallMePaul: Maxie HATES being called Maxine.
30	* EveryoneLovesBlondes: Both Palmer and her stepsister Georgette are blonde, and Shanon has hair so light brown as to be technically dark blonde as well.
31	* FoodPorn: Creeps in here and there, as the girls go on late-night junk food binges
32	* FourGirlEnsemble: Lisa, Shanon, Amy and Palmer in the early books, then Max and the other girls
33	* IAmNotPretty: Shanon, who is often self-conscious because she's the one poor local among the rich students
34	* NaiveEverygirl: Shanon
35	* NotAllowedToGrowUp: Averted. Between the first and last book, the girls have progressed three grades.
36	* OffToBoardingSchool: Everyone, obviously.
37	* OfficialCouple: Shanon and Mars, despite the odds, are actually the only two penpals to stick together through the entire series. By the final book, when everyone is a bit older, it's pretty clearly hinted that the two have a strong romantic attachment.
38	* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Mars, whose real name is Arthur Martinez
39	* ScholarshipStudent: Shanon. She's the only one who has to work a student job, and who worries about affording trips and clothes.
40	* SchoolPlay: Another opportunity for the girls to spend time with the boys, naturally
41	* ShrinkingViolet: Shanon, quite often
42	* SiblingYinYang: Lisa and her nerdy older brother Reggie at the boys' school
43	* SnoopingLittleKid: Palmer's younger stepsister Georgette, in the later books
44	* SummerCampy: In the second to last book, both schools attend a summer camp together.
45	* TechnologyMarchesOn: In one book, Shanon sneaks into the newspaper office in order to instant message with Amy's penpal John, a member of the newspaper at the boys' school, in order to get information about another roommate's penpal. Much is made of this newfangled technology.
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Context Literature / PenPals