Sign-In
Cart
Teenage Secrets Notes on a String.: Coming of Age Novel.
Paperback
Series: Teenage Secrets Notes on a String, Book 1
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Dec 26 2025
Pages: 132
Weight: 0.41
Height: 0.28 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Remember when a handwritten note could make your heart race before the next class even started?
Before texting. Before social media. Before anyone knew where you were every minute of the day.
You passed folded notes in school. You waited by the house phone. You made cassette tapes for someone you liked. You wore denim, hung out with friends, rented movies on Friday nights, and stayed outside until someone called you home.
Astoria, Queens. The 1980s.
Sammy and Tammy live close enough to pass handwritten notes between their bedroom windows on a string.
At first, the notes are simply a private way to talk. Soon, they become something more.
First love.
But growing up in their Queens neighborhood means dealing with strict families, loyal friends, bad decisions, and trouble that never stays far away.
When the building superintendent threatens the basement clubhouse where Sammy and his friends gather, the tension begins to build.
A party brings the police.
A friend lands in the hospital.
Another is pulled toward a neighborhood gang.
Friendships begin to change. Families interfere. Secrets become harder to protect.
Through it all, Sammy and Tammy keep passing their handwritten notes, trying to hold on to something good while everything around them starts changing.
Because back then, you couldn't send a text saying, Meet me tonight.
You had to write it down.
Fold it.
Pass it.
And hope the right person found it.
Teenage Secrets: Notes on a String is a nostalgic 1980s New York coming-of-age story about first love, friendship, music, family, neighborhood life, and the choices you never completely forget.
If you grew up in the 1970s or 1980s, passed notes in school, waited for your favorite song on the radio, made mixtapes, hung out with friends for hours, and remember your first real crush, this story was written for you.
Also from
Jaxen, Nico
Also in
Young Adult Fiction
The Odyssey: A Graphic Novel: (A Modern Visual Adaptation of Homer's Epic Tale of Greek Mythology for Young Adults)
Hinds, Gareth
Paperback
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (National Book Award Winner)
Alexie, Sherman
Paperback
Piper at the Gates of Dusk: (A Young Adult Dystopian Adventure of Survival, Identity, and a Divided Future World)
Ness, Patrick
Hardcover
Legendary Frybread Drive-In: Intertribal Stories
Hart, Kate
Gansworth, Eric
Smith, Cynthia Leitich
Hardcover
Once Upon a Broken Heart Collector's Edition: [Limited Stenciled Edge Edition]
Garber, Stephanie
Hardcover