Lost and Found 2
We hit 500 comments on the other thread, so I’ll start clean. If you didn’t get an answer your first time around, feel free to post again.
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Looking for 2 different books.
Book 1 – Starts out with a girl moving with her family out of her old family home (apparently like an old mansion with lots of family and old junk and she was homeschooled) into a regular home and going to school for the first time. I remember her being obsessed with wanting braces too.
Book 2 – I don’t remember ANYTHING about the main plot but as a side plot the main character and her best friend wrote a HUGE novel about Barbie (as in the doll)
Any ideas? I’m goin crazy trying to think of these 2.
Doh! Just found a response to my previous inquiry about the barbie poem by you wonderful people.
Thanks!! =) But would still like anything about the braces-obsessed book lol.
Moving this over….
OK, I have a really really vauge one here. A boy ends up going back in time (he thinks) to a very primitive society. They live in what are basically big holes cut into the side of the mountains, like Pueblos. The boy’s name MIGHT have been Rocco or something like that. He studies with the medicine man- or maybe it was a woman who interpreted dreams. I remember he had to crawl over the cliffs/rocks to get to her. Towards the end of the book, he realizes that he has actually gone FORWARD in time, and the primitive society is the result of a nuclear war on earth. He somehow gets back to present time and has to send a letter that will stop the war. His aunt helps him. I think in the begining of the book he is in the hospital. I remember his aunt brings him Coke with rum in it. He may have been there because he fell down into a subway train track, but I’m not sure (may be confusing that with another book). This has bugged me for years! I really want to read it again!
I’m still trying to find ANYONE who remembers the book with the teens on the school newspaper and the fake twins. Who forgets fake twins? They were just friends but I think everyone thought they were sisters?
OH! I just had a brain flash: they were called “Sure” and “Fine” because that’s all they said!
Wait, was this a Whitney cousins book? Some girl moves to town and she becomes bff with someome who looks just like her?
No, the fake twins were secondary characters. In fact, the main character has a thing for a guy who hangs out with Sure (I think it was Sure) a lot and she gets jealous.
I feel like mine was too vague before, so I’ll put it again!
There were a few books about the same group of kids, and I know in one of them there was a huge flood in the town (it was set in a small town) and their school couldn’t be used anymore so everyone had to go to school in an empty mall.
I usually have a pretty good memory about this but this is KILLING ME. Anybody?
Okay, these are sort of vague, but any help would be appreciated.
1) a girl named Zoe has an imaginary friend named Zoe Louise. She eventually finds a tombstone that says “Zoe Louise” and it turns out that her imaginary friend is actually a ghost, and in addition, her mom saw the tombstone and named her Zoe after it.
2) a girl turns 16 and discovers she has some sort of magical powers. This first manifests on the morning of her 16th birthday when she wakes up and it’s raining, and she’s like “I wish it wouldn’t rain!” and it stops. Then later she wishes to find a lost frisbee and it magically floats out of the woods. I think her grandmother helps her develop her powers.
KC- is the second one “A Gift of Magic” by Lois Duncan? Here is the Amazon.com produt description:
“When the old woman died, she left each of her grandchildren something very special. For Kirby, the gift of dance. For Brendon, the gift of music. And for Nancy, the most extraordinary gift of all . . . the gift of magic. “
this one’s a long shot, but if anyone knows it i will totally bake you cupcakes. i read this when i was about 8 or 9 and it’s about a girl who lives in some kind of hotel or bed and breakfast. anyways, one of the employees has made up a fairy tale just for her and he tells her bits and pieces of it everyday. i think that he leaves at the end of the book to go work somewhere else but i’m not sure. any guesses?
The end of _A Gift of Magic_ scared me. IT WAS TOTES REAL, GUYS.
But there’s no magic frisbee in that book, sorry to say.
For some reason I have midde-grade books with boy characters on the brain, but cannot remember the titles/authors of these books at all:
A boy named Chris(?) is somehow chosen to be on a commercial where he has to play tennis in his underwear and is very embarrassed about it…
A boy named Christopher Robin is embarrassed by his Winnie the Pooh obsessed mother and his genius sister Winnie
A bratty pre-teen boy is trying to get adopted. some man and woman take him in for a “trial period” and he makes the woman a sandwich called a greasy cheese. that is about all i remember of that
88Keys – I’m pretty sure that was Rocco, by Sherryl Jordan. I loved that book and her other one, Winter of Fire.
88Keys – I read/owned A Gift of Magic as well, and I’m pretty sure this was something different, unless I dreamed the magical frisbee.
On further thought, the girl in my book may have been turning 13 instead of 16, and I think it had a blue cover.
I have been trying to figure out the title of this book for years! I had to delurk just to ask.
All I remember is a girl with long dark hair is tricked into sitting by a wall or fence and her ex-friends cut off her hair.
I think she starts wearing a hat everywhere after that, and eventually her hair is beautiful short. Her best friend is a guy? He might have been the one to cut her hair after a prank war or something.
misc. sarah i believe that you are looking for louis sachar’s sixth grade secrets.
Connor thank you!! I just ordered it from amazon – the cover brought it all back. Thank you!
If I remember correctly the book I’m trying to remember was about teen witches. Possibly a coven. I remember that they each had their own stone. The main characters stone was Hematite. Also there was some thing with a boy and a girl being connected by a silver thread or string. I also remember a fire, and everything maybe being near the ocean.
Of course I may have dreamed this entire book.
Uh…Jessica, you may want to see the first page of this blog, because that sounds a lot like, you know, The Secret Circle.
kc-the book about Zoe Louise is called Stonewords
anyone remember a book about a girl who has a Wayne Gretzsky autographed hockey stick as her most prized possession?
kristen- try Who Put That Hair in My Toothbrush by Jerry Spinelli.
and the only reason I remember this one is because i just picked up a copy at a garage sale. it’s still funny.
Anonymous: The first book is The Secret Life of the Underwear Champ by Betty Miles. I loved that book when I was younger! The main character’s name is Larry, though.
KC and others- you’re right. I’ve been on a Lois Duncan kick lately and just re-read A Gift of Magic. No frisbee! But it was even better than I remembered.
Lena- THANK YOU! Seriously, I could kiss you! I looked up Sherryl Jordan on amazon. The book I was looking for is actually “A Time of Darkness.”
http://www.amazon.com/Time-Darkness-Sherryl-Jordan/dp/0590433628/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224127496&sr=8-10
Same cover and everything! I’m so excited! Gotta find a copy
Me again….Actually, further research indicates that “Rocco” and “A Time of Darkness” are the same book. So you were right on.
Now I have to figure out what the book was about the boy who went under the subway train. I think he was rescuing someone. I remember it being very descriptive.
I remember writing a book report in grade four about a Vietnamese girl whose little dog goes missing and she goes searching for it. Vague I know. I think it was written in the sixties/early seventies at the height of the Vietnam War. The cover had the girl holding her dog and she was wearing red. Anybody have any idea what this book is called?
Maybe a long shot, but: this was a period book, I want to say early 1900s but I could be remembering wrong. The main character is named Julie and she lives with some female relative (grandmother? aunt?) and her uncle. The uncle is really handsome and charming and talks all the time about how he’s writing a novel and it’s his “magnum opus” (this book is totes where I learned that phrase!), but really he’s just getting drunk on Old Crow all the time. Julie has a friend named Carlotta who is pretty and popular and has her own little horse-drawn carriage, and I think Carlotta eventually gets knocked up and shames her family. And that’s all I can remember, aside from the fact that I LOVED this book when I was a kid. Does anybody else remember this?
Anonymous,
You are looking for Up a Road Slowly by Irene Hunt. I loved that book so much. Poor drunken Uncle Haskell.
meryl -
the book ab the kids in the mall is “Hobie Hanson, Greatest Hero of the Mall” by jamie Gilson and it’s the same kids from 13 ways to sink a sub and 4b goes wild. Here’s the amazon link
http://www.amazon.com/Hobie-Hanson-Greatest-Hero-Mall/dp/0688089682
I could’ve sworn that the book about the girl waking up at 16 and being magical was called something obvious like “16 means magic” but a google search turns up nothing with that title. I think she has a non-magical cousin the same age who is jealous. and she bakes some kind of magical brownies with a love potion, right? I totally remember that and I think it was a series besides. Something separate from a Gift of Magic which was also awesome.
Hi The book about the girl who gets magical powers on her Birthday is called Thirteen Means Magic.It’s by Eve Becker.I just read that one.
Connor,The book you are refering to is Called R,My Name is Rosie.
I have vague memories of a book where a boy was either sent to detention regularly or else even reform school. He was a “normal kid” but the other kids in there were of course all outcasts of some sort. I know there was a kid who listened to the radio all of the time and some girl who didn’t talk until some great climax when she had something wise to say (as that cliche always goes). I know the boy of course ends up bonding with those kids, but I don’t remember absolutely anything else…
I’ve been looking for this book for years, thought it was in the Sweet Dreams series, but not sure. The basic details are girl tennis player, either set in Australia or that’s the site of the competition, guy named Mick(? could be Rick) – I think they go on a date in the Outback, he might drive a Mustang… also her first kiss…
The closest thing I can find is Sweet Dreams #10, titled Love Match, with a guy named Rick, but I don’t want to buy it online unless I know it’s the right one. Anyone familiar with this title?
Hi, I have 2 for y’all. Though they may border on children’s instead of YA.
1. There are these 2 girls who live in a historic town in New England/Virginia area where there are historic tours, colonial re-enactments, etc. They climb a tree which is like a bridge/window to colonial times where they meet a girl from colonial times who is mentally handicapped, hiding in the tree because people are mean to her. They teach the colonial girl her letters and how to read so that she can make her stitching sampler, which was really important to her. When they show the girl the G page in the ABCs book she thinks the giraffe is a monster and screams/jumps out of the tree. She makes her sampler and they part ways. At the end a tour guide talks about how odd it was that a colonial girl could know what a giraffe was and stitch it on her sampler.
2. This book *literally* haunts me. It’s about a young girl who lives at her grandma’s big old house (I think) because her parents are mysteriously gone. There’s this vaguely creepy cat that’s made out of glass and talks to her and tells her she’s a fairy and that being able to kiss her elbow is proof. The cat is kinda sinister and acts like her friend but I think it was trying to get her to use her fairy powers to do something bad. I think there’s also another animal made out of glass that is the little girl’s friend and tries to help her do the right thing. There’s a part where the fairy girl does some floating or flying (maybe down the stairs because she tripped but she floated instead of fell? or maybe she jumped out a window…) and at the end her parents show up. They were being kept away by magic but they got free.
Any help is SERIOUSLY appreciated. ^_^
The book I am looking for is titled ; Lost And Found. It is mostly set around Tulsa Oklahoma. It starts off about a woman giving birth in an old warehouse. When the child is three, the mother leaves her and her older brother in the care of a man at some sort of charity place where she worked for her keep, while she goes to visit her father. The children aren’t happy with the way they are treated, so they decide to go on a train journey to follow their mother.
The boy leaves his sister on the train while he goes out to buy muffins. When he comes back, he finds that the train with his sister has gone and he is on another train. Worried about his sister, he continues to find his mother. The mother searches all over Oklahoma for her little girl but does not find her. The little girl is lucky and is well looked after by an elderly couple on a farm. eventually, by chance she is found some thirty years later. A very good story with great twists to it. If anyone has this for sale, or knows who the author is, PLEASE let me know
I am trying to find my husband’s favorite book as a child. He does not remember the name but knows that it involved a young boy, stones rolling up a hill, a well, and possible a witch. He says that the artwork in it was quite beautiful. Any help will be appreciated as his b-day is coming up and I want to surprise him!!
Ok, this is such a vague description but theres a girl and a creepy old lady who turns out to be a witch (for some reason I have Maude in my head?) and she pulls out strands of the girls hair. For some reason, that bit stuck with me. Erm, I think the girl’s sister has something important to do with the story…? Any help would be great!!
This is probably a long shot, but hopefully someone know who I’m talking about…
There’s an author out there. She’s female, and her pen name is 3 names. She writes horror novels similar to say, Christoper Pike, and I think she’s considered more of a young adult writer. I know she had several books out before 2000.
I think I read at least one of her books about a girl who has having these out of body experiences and then gets tricked into giving up her body? I can’t remember much more and it’s driving me crazy!
At this point I’ll take any ideas! Anyone know of any female YA horror authors?? TIA!!
Andrea, that sounds like Lois Duncan’s “Stranger with My Face.” http://www.amazon.com/Stranger-My-Face-Lois-Duncan/dp/0440983568
The girl finds out she’s adopted because her bio-twin visits her through astral projection, then teaches her to astral project and takes over her body while she’s out of it.
She wrote a bunch of other books–Daughters of Eve, Don’t Look Behind You, Locked in Time . . .etc.
I think the tri-named woman who wrote teen horror was Richie Tankersley Cusick, though she didn’t write the book you’re thinking of.
Does anyone remember a series with a protagonist named Rosie and a best friend named Hermione Wong who really really wanted to be popular? There was something about Apple shirts being the in-thing to wear and a book where all the girls in the class gave themselves nicknames ending with an “i” to be cool.
The Kuus–
I think you mean the Rosy Cole books by Sheila Greenwald? I know that there’s a girl named Hermione Wong in those, she even gets her own book–Here’s Hermione, A Rosy Cole production. Amazon link
I solved my own question with Google-fu. ^_^
It’s “No Flying in the House” about a girl named Annabell Tippens. And while it may be more children’s lit than YA, I am totes off to find a copy! ^_^
Yes, that’s them! Thank you, SpinningJenny.
Ok looking for an old book from my elementary school years. Features two sisters, older one is into boys and make-up and writes a diary. Younger sister proceeds to steal and read the diary and gets into lots o trouble. I distinctly remember the little sis being upset that the older one spent $2.50 on a tube of lipstick which could buy a burger! And the end where little sis reads in the diary her sister is running off with the boyfriend and she skips summer camp to stop her. But it was a trick and her punishment is missing camp. Any help?
Hi all,
Just came across this site, totally brilliant.
This query is geared towards Australian readers mostly – I got this book back towards 2000, and it’s about this ‘Wog’ girl who has a boyf and thinks life is all great. Her best friend is really shy with strict parents, and her boyf is really quiet and sweet. Anyway, there is a girl at their High school (Jeanine??) who is known for being a v**gin, she ends up having what is essentially a gang bang with all the guys at school, along with the main characters boyf. The only ones who don’t partake are the (Jeanine?) girls ex & the main characters best friends boyfriend. The main girls boyf name may be manuel but i’m not sure. There is also a scene of the main chick & boyf getting lucky in car, her at home with her grandma, and the ending is all happy where the bff and boyfriend are together, and the main chick is single & working, and I think they are at a carnival.
I know it sounds all crazy and vague, but I have been trying to find this book again for SO LONG. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I think it’s classified as YA too. Thanks.
Back again! As if that one wasn’t hard enough, I have another one. Pretty sure it was written in the 80’s, but you may know it.
It is called “Best Friends”, or something close to it, and it is about this shy girl who has a crush on the cute boy called “Bobby”. Anyway, she ends up becoming friends with one of the glamorous girls named Susannah, who is a budding fashion designer, and the main girl ends up getting a haircut, new clothes, contact lenses etc, and turns out that Bobby had always had a crush on her too, and they get together. She also ends up convincing/secretly entering Susannah to a design school. Among this they are put into groups to do an assignment, which is where this all starts, and there is another jock guy in there etc. The main girl and Bobby also go on a sailing date.
Any help would be So greatly appreciated, once again.
Thanks guys, & Happy Holidays!
Sarah C and Anon, I also loved Up A Road Slowly. Heck, I think I re-read it last year. Aunt Cordelia was my favorite character, even when I was about seven!
It’s not the kind of fiction people usually snark on on this blog, but i was wondering if any of you knew the name of a recently (past five years) published novel set in an alternative-universe Venice. The title end in -ganza. I think. Any ideas?
Aly, the name of that book is The Best of Friends by Jill Klevin. The main character was Allison. I loved that book, especially the makeover and the descriptions of Susannah’s clothes!
This is a long shot because I really don’t remember anything about the plot so I’m just going off the book cover. This had to be in the late 70’s/early 80’s – It has a brunette girl looking out a window of her home and she’s has pushed the drapes back to peer out. She looks scared or apprehensive. I want to say it the plot is about an older guy stalking her or following her around her neighborhood. I have looked all over Amazon because I thought the words “stranger” or “watching/watcher” was in the title but it was just too vague. I could also be totally off base but I think I remember the girl looking like Heather Langenkamp from the Nightmare on Elm Street series.
Thanks!
Okay, I’m thinking of a series of books. Not sure of the name of the series, but I know there were four friends: two were named Sabrina and Al (last name Cloud?), one was maybe Katie?? and there was another one as well. Not sure of the title though. I remember reading one where Al became a model with one of the snobby girls in school? Anyone know the name of the series?
Anonymous:
The book you were looking for is The Twinkie Squad by Gordon Korman. Love Love LOVE his stuff, and own most of it.
Lovey:
Is it ARE YOU IN THE HOUSE ALONE? (I tihnk by Richard Peck).
His books were very different from other YA stuff I read at the time, mostly because they were (a) very realistic and (b) featured teenage sex (but in a realistic way, not like Christopher Pike’s gory teen sex=bloody death way).
Actually, this Peck book is pretty disturbing. It’s about rape and features a VERY chilling aftermath of rape depiction, including an invasive pelvic exam of the victim and a horrible “mind-rape” of her by skeptical authorities who dredge up her sexual history. But it’s very true-to-life.
It could trigger negative reactions in a lot of readers, particularly victims of sexual assault.
By the way, if you look for it on Amazon, it won’t have that cover (reprint). The cover you’re talking about is the copy I read back when I was a preteen or young teen in the late 80s (but most likely not the very original cover from the 70s).
Peck’s a great writer, and I remember thinking he gets into women’s/girls’ minds so well (then again, maybe I’d think differently now).
Thank you Bart Templeton! It does make sense that the cover art would change over the years. Weird that I can see that cover so clearly in my mind but I can’t describe it so well. The plotline you described sounds like it would be the same novel b/c the girl looked so fearful and apprehensive. I work at a middle school so I will see if they have that book. Sounds more like an adult novel though with the rape storyline. Thanks again for responding so quickly
Bart, I found the original and it is AYITHA!!!!!
Hopefully you can check this out!!
Thanks again!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-media/product-gallery/0440902274/ref=cm_ciu_pdp_images_0?ie=UTF8&index=0
If this link doesn’t work, go to Amazon.com, type in the title and then click on customer images. I am so thrilled that this mystery is finally solved – Now I definitely have to read it!!
Also did you know that it was made into a TV movie in 1978 starring Blythe Danner and Dennis Quaid? Check out imdb.
Sure thing, Lovey.
I’ll bet they either have it or could order it, because he’s a major YA author (won the Newberry award for his newer stuff for intermediate level).
It’s definitely a YA book, but it’s funny about 70s and 80s YA: if you look at even standard suspense stuff like Lois Duncan, they had themes a lot more “mature” than today’s YA…even though today’s YA has more surface sex and drugs and swearing. It’s almost like kids today are being fed pumped up junk like Gossip Girls that pretends to be “edgy”, but all of the real “sting” from mature realistic themes is not allowed in. Peck wrote about teen pregnancy and rape in his early (70s) stuff; Lois Duncan’s books had forced seduction and rape and shocking gang violence that I just don’t think would be treated realistically today.
Again, you’ve given me an opportunity to deliver a “back in the better days” sermon. maybe a librarian or literature professor could verify if my comparison is correct.
“A boy named Christopher Robin is embarrassed by his Winnie the Pooh obsessed mother and his genius sister Winnie”
That’s Seventh Grade Weirdo by Lee Wardlaw. Remembering that the girl he liked was named Jenner was the key to googling that and not just getting Pooh hits!
Anne // December 5, 2008 at 2:04 am
Anonymous:
The book you were looking for is The Twinkie Squad by Gordon Korman. Love Love LOVE his stuff, and own most of it.
WOW, I would never have remembered that on my own. THANK YOU.
I have no idea what this book is called or who it’s by:
two girls named Amy Ford and Jenny Solano(?) start high school and drift apart when Amy becomes popular and Jenny…quite the opposite. I remember Jenny going to a dance in an ugly outfit of a yellow shirt and black shirt and getting teased; and also hooking up with a guy who sounded right out of the trenchcoat Mafia. With all of those details, I’m kind of surprised I can’t remember the title.
Okay, so I remember almost nothing about this book, but it’s worth a shot. The main character (girl) is from either Australia or New Zealand, can’t remember which, and she’s a competitive swimmer. The ONLY plot piece I remember is that she gets her period early right before a competition and she’s taken aback because her dad and/or coach (I can’t remember if her dad is her coach) always knows her cycle and doesn’t schedule competitions for her when she’ll be having her period. I know, it’s a stretch.
Also, Sarah C and Anon and Jade Wu, add me to the Up a Road Slowly fan club. I love it obsessively and re-read it non-stop for basically all of third grade. And I like Danny.
“I have no idea what this book is called or who it’s by:
two girls named Amy Ford and Jenny Solano(?) start high school and drift apart when Amy becomes popular and Jenny…quite the opposite.”
Anonymous, that’s ‘Tall, Thin and Blonde’ by Dyan Sheldon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1564021394/002-8186340-0718458?v=glance&n=283155&s=books&v=glance
One of my favourite YA books ever!
“Okay, I’m thinking of a series of books. Not sure of the name of the series, but I know there were four friends: two were named Sabrina and Al (last name Cloud?), one was maybe Katie?? and there was another one as well. Not sure of the title though. I remember reading one where Al became a model with one of the snobby girls in school? Anyone know the name of the series?”
The series is called Girl Talk by L.E. Blair (K. A. Applegate) with Allison Cloud, Sabrina Wells, Katie Campbell, and Randy Zak with her sweet spiky mullet. Stacy is the bitchy rival who doesn’t know how to pronounce “gauche”. ^_^
wiki linky: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girl_Talk_(books)
SpinningJenny… thanks so much! Now to my library website to see if they have any
I absolutely love this sight!!! I loved the Christopher Pike novels. I thought most of Patricia Hermes stuff was always so depressing! Some tragedy is always happening in her books.
One Patricia Hermes novel comes to mind but I can’t think of the title…a boy was mowing the lawn and ran over his foot and cut off his toes…ring any bells for anyone???
Also there was this book I read when I was around 9 or 10 it may be from that same series of A my name is Ami (I remember that book and her friend Mia). I wonder if it may be that book…anyway the main character has a mentally retarded older sister (or maybe younger) named Luanne. I think they may go to a mall at one point. Luanne may have run away or gotten lost at one point. I absolutely can’t remember any other details. Can anyone help me??
Thanks!!!
Hey Amy B, I think that you’re talking about Betty Ren Wright’s The Dollhouse Murders.
THANK YOU Connor!!!! The Dollhouse Murders is totally the name of the book I was thinking of! I knew someone on this sight would help me!! I must have just gotten 2 stories mixed up! That book was a bit freaky and made me think all of my dolls came to life when I went to sleep at night!!!
Okay, one more book has been driving me crazy trying to figure out. Sorry for the vagueness:
It’s about a young teen girl who goes to babysit these kids. The house gets broken into and the “badguys” tie up the kids and lock them somewhere. The babysitter escapes with the kids (Or maybe without them and runs for help and then the kids are saved) but at any rate I think the babysitter escapes through an attic window…does this ring any bells for anyone????
Thank you!!
Amy B, I have that one for you as well. It’s Babysitting is a Dangerous Job by Wilo Davis Roberts.
OMG, Connor you are a book genious!!! Thank you! I am forever in your debt! You rock!!!
Kates -
the book you are talking about is called “In Lane Three, Alex Archer.” That book is awesome and it was in my parents’ basement that just got flooded and my mom threw it out! I think she is from New Zealand cause her rival’s parents maybe take that girl to Australia to train with better swimmers or something.
You all were so helpful with the Rocco book, so here is another one! It involves twin girls named Cordelia and Ophelia. (Dad was a Shakespeare nut). The plot involves antique dolls (they are given one? Or find one? And it turns out to be very valuable). They make friends with a boy who helps them, but I don’t remember his name. I do remember them visiting a woman who collected dolls and had them all.over.her.house, and also visiting a place that repaired dolls (think doll body parts lying around everywhere). I remember actual sentances from this book, but of course, not the title.
And another one. It involved a girl who was named Tabby, but she loved dogs. She works at a kennel and somehow gets involved at a dog show. A crime is committed and she helps solve it. I remember her getting tied up and locked inside a large dog crate, and knocking down a bottle of Tide to spring the latch and get herself out.
Never mind…I found the doll book. It’s called “Missing Melinda,” by Jacqueline Jackson. She also wrote one of my other favorite books, “The Ghost Boat.”
I love this site, I could spend hours here!
Does anybody remember the cranberry cousins? It was two girls who were cousins and their moms opened an inn in New Hampshire. Not surprisingly, one was nerdy and one was rebellious, and they shared a room. I think the nerdy one’s name was Dina, but I don’t remember the other one’s name..
Here’s one that I only remember very vague and random bits about. The main character, a girl, had a mom that was very scatterbrained and disorganized. I think her BFF’s mom was super organized and super mom. One thing I remember in the book was some ancedote about how her mom made her grilled cheese sandwiches and even though the cheese had was old and had to have mold cut off of it, it was jarlsberg. Random, I know…
This is a bit late, but Andrea on 8th Nov- are you thinking of “The Accident” by Diane Hoh? In it a girl called Megan meets “Juliette”, who is just a plume of light in her mirror, but turns out to be the ghost of a girl who lived in the same house many years before, and shares Megan’s birthday. She convinces Megan to lend her her body for a week before her 16th birthday, but heaps of accidents start happening to Megan’s loved ones?
@ Kates and Anonymous 22 Dec, the book Alex is by Tessa Duder and is actually first in a series of four books where Alex eventually wins a place in the New Zealand Olympic team, and goes to the 1960 Rome Olympics. They’re great books and New Zealand modern classics
Does anyone remember a book called something like “Red Sky in the Morning”? I remember hardly any detail but it’s about a girl who’s coming of age and her mum maybe gives birth to a down syndrome brother? And she has a friend who has sex but she’s not ready to yet or something. Sorry, if anyone figures it out from these vague clues they need a medal!
OK, sorry I just googled it and solved that one for myself- it is called The Red Sky in the Morning, and it’s by Elizabeth Laird.
But, there’s another one bugging me- does anyone know of a book called something like “The Other Side of the Mountain”? As I remember it it’s about a refugee from the Balkans maybe who escapes to Greece and goes to school there? Or she’s from Greece and she goes somewhere else to school and goes back to Greece? I can’t remember exactly but any help would be appreciated!
SpinningJenny–did you find your fairy book yet? If not, I think you are looking for No Flying in the House. In fact, I am positive you are. My sister in law and I bonded over this book when I first met her, as a little girl (I liked his ex gf and was bummed). She was the one who remembered it, and we both bought her daughter (my niece AND goddaughter) a copy:)
oh, I see now that you did find it! Oh well, I also wanted to ask about this book–I thought it might be a Rosy Cole book, but now I am not sure. There was a girl who lived in the city and there was something about these jeans that have a really dumb brand name—like Jiffy Jeans or Chuckie Jeans or something and people wore them with silk shirts (maybe?) and There were black and white illustrations (I particularly remember the ones with the jeans) and there might have been something about cake frosting…and fighting with friends..maybe a violin?
and I have never been able to find this one but–it was scary book involving an old house, native americans, ad paper dolls that maybe seemed like skin? and ghosts and drums…and some relatives, like cousins?
Also, there was this book about this farm family with about a billion kids and they named their cows names that went with one letter of the alphabet, each year–one was named Kellen. They had to fill in the cow marking pictures and on Christmas, one of them got an All of a Kind Family book.
book a) overweight girl meets a new friend who is a runner and they go jogging every day together. eventually main character loses weight, learns to love herself, blah, blah blah. better than it sounds.
book b) two best friends are in junior high and are having competing bday parties. girl one has a dancing party so her athletic bff will learn to dance. then girl two has a football/dancing party. there’s also a storyline about the football girl being a “big buddy” to a cute kid, taking him trick-or-treating, etc and she has a crush on his older step brother.
help!
If no one responded, I believe you’re thinking of “Me and Fat Glenda” by Lila Perl.
bookslide and anonymous – is it Abracadabra Series? the first book is called Thirteen Means Magic On her thirteenth birthday Dawn Powell discovers that she has inherited magical powers.
I am SO glad I found this site!! There were unknown book titles bugging me for years that I finally was able to get answers too. But do I have 2 books to ask about:
1- this was posted in the other thread by somebody else but not answered. It’s about a girl (Belinda? Billie?) who’s mom becomes a health food fanatic, banning meat & sweets. So the girl starts sneaking food & starts a junk food club; eventually everything works out, etc. & she creates the MAP club (meat & potatoes)
2- 2 fatherless girls go to live w/ their aunt & cousin. Their father was accused of stealing years ago, but it was really the uncle who was guilty – both died in a car crash. The diamonds ( I think) the uncle stole were discovered in a doll house by one of the girls along with a confession. I initially thought it was Dollhouse Murders, but it’s not.
I love that first book and I’ve tried before to google for the title. I remember so many details about it- the girl first has the club called GHOST (something something something sprouts tofu). She eats under the bleachers because she’s so embarassed by her lunch. She makes herself puke at one point by mixing milk and mustard and drinking it. They list the other crazy things her mom did after the divorce, like make the girl sleep with her on the living room floor for weeks, which was really pretty sad.
seahag–I totally know the book you are talking about–i was thinking about it the other day. it was one girl though, and her cousin was snotty and tried to make her feel bad all of the time. The main girl’s name was Jodie and they were just visiting after Christmas, I think. I remember the cover, because the doll the artist used as a prop on the cover was Fisher Price Mandy doll, which I had! Let me see if I can find the title out for you.
gah–it’s going to drive me crazy. I don’t think it was Betty Ren Wright, but it was something like that, an Apple type book, possibly the same cover artist as The Dollhouse Murders. The diamonds might have been hidden in a doll, not a dollhouse, though I am not sure. Also, the girl was visiting the house her grandmother lived in, where her dad and uncle grew up. They used to go there for elaborate Christmas celebrations but since her dad died and was suspected of stealing, her mom didn’t want to go. It was suggested that the girl go for New Years. The cousin was a snotty bitch, as a recall, and the aunt never missed a chance to imply that the father was a crook. The grandmother never doubted the innocence of her son, though, and never made the girl feel badly. They talked about hors de’ouvres, and I thought you pronounced it “ours devours”…there was something about walking in the snow and a cute neighbor boy, too. Sigh. you think with all that, I could get a title!
http://www.librarything.com/work/598289
Okay, it’s called Secrets in the Attic and it’s by Carol Beach York. I can sleep now!
OMG thank you sooo much! I am so glad I checked the site. Its amazing we can remember all the tiniest little details, but not book titles.
I have a couple of suggestions to past questions, sorry I’m so late to the game…
Amy B. there’s a Patricia Hermes book called “Nobody’s Fault” where a girl’s brother is killed after being run over by a riding lawnmower after he falls off.
And this is an old one, but K. Wilson, one of the books you’re looking for is “Confessions of a Prime-Time Kid”.
Thanks to the first thread for “The Iceberg and It’s Shadow”! I’ve posted vague descriptions of that book on other sites and it’s been killing me trying to remember it for months. Now I see why the title was so hard to remember.
Stasia – Love Match is about a girl who plays tennis so well that they put her on the boys team. Her brother was a professional tennis player. It didn’t take place in Australia.
Does anyone remember the name of a teen romance from the 80’s (either Sweet Dreams, First Love From Silhouette, or Wildfire) – during chemistry class, the bad boy in school builds a tower of beakers and the fall and smash and cut a girl on the face. They end up seeing each other, even though her parents don’t want her around him. Something like that?
Hi there… I’ve been mostly a lurker on this site. I read this book when I was younger, and cannot remember the name of it.
It’s in diary form, and it’s about a young girl – It starts off with her getting a pony for her birthday, and then as the diary goes on, she gets involves in drugs, and sex. Does it ring a bell for anyone?
Jane- That sounds soo familiar. But I can’t remember the darn title. Didn’t it have something to do with the moon?
Well I was actually trying to find the book that Jane describes but I came across this one-life as we know it by susan beth pfeffer- which might be the one that Amanda is referring to. I’m working on my google research skills here
I may well be making this book up but I seem to remember a Point Horror (possibly Celia Rees?) novel in which a teenager got turned into an ornament or toy in old shop? There were probably loads of books with that storyline but the memory suddenly popped into my head when reading the post about the haunted dolls. I definitely think it was a Point Horror book and it was probably published in the late 90s or early 00s. If anyone has any idea what it is I’ll be presently surprised
Hi again.
I did some online searching – And found the book I was looking for! It’s called “The Diary of Laura Palmer” – Has something to do with the tv show “Twin Peaks”.
I LOVE this site – I stumbled on it today when I was searching for books from my teen years (late 80-early 90). What I remember is that is was a trilogy, the main girl finds out she is adopted and her aunt is her mother. In another book her parents are caught in a foreign country when a war breaks out (I think the family is based in D.C.?) She has siblings and in another book her younger sister runs with a bad crowd and gets in a car accident and I just remember the description of the seat belt bruises…does it ring a bell at all?
Erwin — those are the Carlisle Chronicles by Norma Johnston — 3 books in the series total.
Ok this is a book which was in our school library, im going back ten years now and everyone loved it cos it seemed really grown up at the time. I apologise for the lack of details but like i said its been a looong time.
Two girls meet two lads outside school, im sure the lads went to a private school so the girls were unsure about talking to them at first because they were considered well beneath them. Anyway one of the girls starts going out with one of the lads, falls in love with him and eventually loses her virginity to him. Shortly after this he dumps her and im sure (not 100%) that he tells her that he did it all for a bet. She tries to commit suicide and the last chapter is where shes in hospital and the boyfriends friend from the beginning comes to visit her.
If anyone can solve this one for me i would be so grateful, ive been searching for it for years.
Great site by the way.
-Here’s one that I only remember very vague and random bits about. The
-main character, a girl, had a mom that was very scatterbrained and
-disorganized. I think her BFF’s mom was super organized and super
-mom. One thing I remember in the book was some ancedote about how her
-mom made her grilled cheese sandwiches and even though the cheese had
-was old and had to have mold cut off of it, it was jarlsberg. Random,
-I know…
Even more random…your post is triggering bells for me. Did one of the girls’ mother let them eat Reuben sandwiches on the roof? I have a vauge memory of a book like the one you’re describing. Are we thinking of the same book?
Is it The Great Mom Swap by Betsy Haynes?
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/h/betsy-haynes/great-mom-swap.htm
Hamdinger,
The Reuben sandwich on the roof rings a bell; I remember that the girl in question’s mother was dying of cancer. I know, more randomness. . .
I’ve been trying to find this one for a while with no luck. I’m not sure it would be considered YA. Maybe more like pre-teen. It’s about a girl who is doing a family project for school. She ends up interviewing her grandmother who tells her all about growing up in the 20s and 30s. I remember the cover very well. It’s a drawing of the girl who has curly hair dancing in a flapper dress while her grandmother plays the piano. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
This is a fabulous site–it makes me want to timewarp back to my local library, circa 1988, when all of these books were available. I read through some of these posts, and I think I can help. KC–is the book about the girl who wakes up on her 13th birthday to find out she is a witch called “Teen Witch?”. It was a series and there were a couple of others with names like “Witch Switch” and “Gone with the witch”. I have been wondering if ANYONE except me ever read that book. It’s the book where she cooks up a love potion and puts it in some guy’s lemonade, and her aunt owns a bookshop. Seahag, I think the one about the girl who makes the health-food-disguised-as-junk-food-business is call Liver Cookies? and Jane, the diary might be called Go Ask Alice.
I read “Teen Witch” too! You’re not alone.
I know I’m a bit behind the times, but A.S! You read Teen Witch too! I am finally vindicated.
Did anyone ever read the series If Wishes were Horses?
My own lost book is one about a girl with a very “weird” (ie, intellectual) family who moves into a small town–her dad is a a professor, and she has long red hair. There are about 6 kids in the family, and they only eat health food (though when their parents go out of town for a day, they gorge on junk and all get extremely sick). She brings a snake to school, and goes to the dance in a sparkly red dress that her mom found a a garage sale because the mean girl at school tricks her and tells her no one will be wearing jeans? (sorry for the run on sentence). Anyone?
From upthread:
“It’s in diary form, and it’s about a young girl – It starts off with her getting a pony for her birthday, and then as the diary goes on, she gets involves in drugs, and sex. Does it ring a bell for anyone?”
Jane, the book you describe (Secret Diary of Laura Palmer) reminds me of “SARAH T: PORTRAIT OF A TEENAGE ALCOHOLIC”. See: http://www.amazon.com/Sarah-T-Portrait-Teenage-Alcoholic-Wagner/dp/0345342429?tag=dogpile-20. It was the basis for a 1975 movie starring Linda Blair.
ETA: I don’t recall if Laura Palmer ever got a pony on the TV series but she did get one in the book: http://www.glastonberrygrove.net/texts/lpdiary.html
Does anyone remember books that were similar to Choose Your Own Adventure, but they were horror-based? I remember reading one that I thought was called “Horror Hotel” or something like that. One of the possible storylines was finding the ghosts (or zombies, I’m not sure) of two girls who disappeared from the hotel years earlier. I know there were other books, but for some reason I only remember the hotel one. Anyone?
Never mind. I found it. The series was called Plot-Your-Own-Horror-Stories. I remember reading “Nightmare Store” and “Horror Hotel.” They pretty much scared the crap out of me when I was little.
omg this thread is such a good idea!
I scanned the other one for the term ‘ballet’ and couldn’t find the book I was thinking of, so forgive me if it was already posted:
It’s about two girls named Saundra and (I think) Lily, and they both go to a ballet school. Saundra is the older sister and she’s really serious about dancing, there’s one part where it describes her bloody blistered feet, and Lily is shorter and sort of chubby so she can’t seriously pursue it.
I don’t remember much except I think at the end Saundra has to stop dancing for some reason and stops being such a snob to her sister.
Anyone remember?
Re: Ballet dancing sisters, Saundra and Lily –
I know this one! There were two books: The Sisters Impossible and a sequel: Love’s Detective.
Oh and 2 more – one about a girl from NYC who moves to New Orleans and everyone makes fun of her because she wears black, and she starts hanging out with this hot reject guy named Johnny, and he takes her on a canoe tri, then she has a party with the cool kids and he overhears her making fun of him and runs away.
And the other is a trilogy about this girl who goes to an old mansion and goes back in time to the Victorian times, and falls in love with a guy, and the 2nd one is where the guy’s sister comes to the present and meets the girl’s brother and learns to drive a car, and when she goes back in time to the Victorian times she’s wearing jeans and everyone thinks her father locked her in the attic and was torturing her. I forgot what the third is about :-/
Ok, I think this one is going to be a tough one. There is a two book series that I’m thinking of. I cannot for the life of me remember the first one, except that the main character, a female teen, lost a bunch of weight. In the second book, she goes away for the summer to work at a resort as a waitress and meets a cute boy and her friend is jealous. The only other think I really remember is her and the cute boy having a discussion about room temperature butter vs. cold butter. Anyone got a clue on this one?
Those are the Fat Glenda series by Lila Perl. No question.
Robyn, could the books be “The Cat Ate My Gymsuit” and “There’s a Bat in Bunk Five” by Paula Danziger? Although Marcy doesn’t lose weight until the second book and it’s a summer camp, not a resort she works at…
Thanks mdt, but I just reread both of those books, so I’m sure it’s not them. But they were so much fun to read again!
Hi Robyn – I thought it was a long shot but I do have another suggestion – The “Fat Glenda” books? There are several and in one she works at an inn as a waitress in “Fat Glenda’s Summer Romance”. I read the first two in the series but not that one. I’m all out of guess after this!
Ok this one is a horse book about a girl who wants to barrel race and a horse named woody-dip, because he bits the wood on his stall and dips it into the water. Any ideas? Thanks ladies.
Hard Luck Horse by Fern G. Brown – this was on Loganberry and it sounds like the book.
thanks mdt- that is totes it! you are a ya genius!
I just got a brief flash of this one…it is set in elementary school, and there is a popular girl, who is new perhaps, who everyone thinks is pretty because she has one blue eye and one brown eye. I know that is really minor, but does that ring a bell?
Thank you so much MDT – I’m almost positive that’s it. Off to order the whole series from Amazon right now. You are a YA genius!
ihatewheat has released the floodgates of memory re: the Sweet Dreams series (truly craptacular) and now I’m trying to remember the title of the book in that series about a girl named Maria who falls in love with a rich boy named Paul, who tragically dies of cancer. It was called “Will I Ever Love Again?” or something. Also, I remember that Paul’s mother didn’t like Maria and had a hothouse full of rare orchids. Of course Paul dies in the end.
Does that ring any bells?
I’m pretty sure the book you mean is “P.S. I Love You”, Amber Tan. The main character is named Mariah and falls in love with a rich dude named Paul who dies. Pretty heavy stuff for the first ever Sweet Dreams novel!
I think “Falling In Love Again” was the sequel – I never read it but I remember the same girl on the cover, only her hair was even more windblown and she looked even more tragic.
wow, this site is AMAZING! bringing back so many memories.
i have 2 requests, if anyone can help me out i’d be forever indebted to you!
1) What was the title of…. Another boarding school series: Specifically, a horseback riding school. Featured 4 roomates, I forget some of their names except for Lauren and Mary Beth. Each girl had their “own” horse, etc. MaryBeth was the studious one and didn’t want to ride until she got a horseback riding ‘tutor’, another student named Ashley who she found out was anorexic. (this was in one of the books in the series, maybe the first one?)
I’m pretty sure the series title had something to do with horses or the name of the school (go figure)!
Anyone, anyone?
2) A single book about 2 girls who are friends and go away to summer camp. They hate it, so decide to run away. All I remember is they somehow CANOED and then walked home (!!!) and this passage describing how when they got to one of the girls’ houses, her parents weren’t home, so the two sat on the couch and ate cherries.
(oh, the things i remember!)
The first ones you mentioned are the riding academy series. Lessons for Lauren is the anorexic one with Ashley(who is Lauren’s tutor btw). These books are made of win. Jina and Andi were the other girls names. Also Allison Hart wrote an amazing book years later called Shadow horse. Very cool.
omg YES. haha “riding academy” – such a simple name.
thank you sooo much. i wish i still had my old books, i loved them.
Your welcome, I hope your able to get ahold of them again:)
Here’s one that I remember loving: it’s about a girl who finds out she has epilepsy, and the book takes her from freshman to senior year of high school, from before she learns she has it and is really popular to the end of school, when you see how it changed her. I remember that she gets a part in the school show of “Guys and Dolls” but the teacher who’s directing ends up cutting her from the cast because she’s afraid of the epilepsy. And a scene when the girl is at a party and starts slurring her words and banging the wall and everyone thinks it’s funny because they think she’s drunk, but it’s really a seizure. Any ideas?
Hi Sue, not sure if this was a series but check out “What if they knew?” by Patricia Hermes. Jeremy is the lead character with epilepsy and befriends twins Mimi and Libby.
I’ve been thinking about this series for awhile now but can not for the life of me remember what it was called! Honestly I’m having a hard time recalling names and stuff, but it’s about a group of girl friends (four, i think?), possibly in 8th grade. It kinda reminds me of that other series called Girl Talk. Anyway, I remember one name out of this – the token popular/mean girl Celia Forrester. I think I remember her having red hair or something. Anyway, sorry if I’m not much help! If any of these sound familiar let me know, it’s been driving me crazy!
Hey weirdfishes, could it be Terri the Great by Tom Smith? It was in the Best Friends serial, and it was the fourth book.
Does anyone remember this book series that would have been in the early to mid nineties. I thought it was called Girlfriends, but I can’t find it under that. Anyway, it was about a group of friends and I remember two of the girls were African American and they were cousins (or sisters), one was a perfectionist ballerina and the other was wild and into rock, she also had an inter-racial relationship with some blonde guy, there was also a few other girls one may have been Asian, and the books dealt with serious issues, like eating disorders and sex (there may have been an abortion talked about or dealt with) I loved these books and I would appreciate it if anyone could help, thanks!
Hi I don’t know if you already have an answer to this but the series was called Girlfriends. It was written by Nicole Grey.
Sue- is it “What If They Knew?” The girl with epilepsy is named Jeremy and I think she lives with her grandparents.
-Hamdinger,
-The Reuben sandwich on the roof rings a bell; I remember that the
-girl in question’s mother was dying of cancer. I know, more
-randomness. . .
Yes! (I am hamdinger; I was having a brief identity crisis
) I remember the book having a serious tone to it. Still can’t remember what it was though?
88Keys – I don’t think so – I’m pretty positive that the girl in this book lived with her parents, and had a relatively normal name. (I think a girl named “Jeremy” would stand out to me.) But thanks!
I’m going to repost this cos I accidentally put it on the earlier thread!
Okay, this was absolutely shocking – but does anyone remember a book about a girl who cut her hair so she could pass as a boy so she could be in a production of ‘Oliver!’? The guy who was directing it was some famous man who all the girls were in love with, and this girl was in the Glee Club and could sing but cos she was a girl she wasn’t allowed in it so she cut all her hair off and pretended to be a new kid at school. I remember she had a best friend who looked like BSC Jessi and her parents owned a florist called Aaaaah Flowers so it would be the first in the phone book.
Anyone??
Reply
I read this! Actually none of it sounded familiar until I got the Aaaaah Flowers part…I don’t remember the name and I’ve looked and looked online – I hope someone comes up with it, since now it’s driving me crazy too.
So this was REALLY driving me crazy and I asked on another board and got an answer: “A Different Twist” by Elizabeth Levy sounds like the book.
A Different Twist by Elizabeth Levy (1986).
Christi Bay could sing and act better than almost anyone else in her school. Phil Grey, a famous actor and Christi’s idol, arrives in town to direct a production of OLIVER using local kids for the street urchins. Christi can hardly wait for the auditions. But she and her best friend Lizbeth are disappointed: boys only are to be cast.
It was also an ABC special – check out one of the book covers with Brian Bloom (does anyone remember him?) http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2ql8mbl&s=3
OMG. Just saw this! Thank you so much mdt! You are the best! I am going to have to ebay this Right Now!
Sue, is it A Handful of Stars by Barbara Girion? It’s about an epileptic high school girl named Julie…
Can anyone help me with my two?
1. A middle-school-age girl orders a set of wings through mail order. She puts them together, describing the sound the rainbow feathers make when they go in the wings. Then she glues them to her back, and drinks a potion, and she can fly. The book’s all about her learning to fly, having to hide the wings at school under a parka, and how she has to go meet this creepy owl-man scientist to get more potion to either turn fully into a bird, or make the wings fall off. She takes the wings-off potion, and they fall off, and her older brother takes her home.
2. A middle-school-age boy is always in trouble for daydreaming. He lives with his grandmother, because his mom’s in hiding for being a political radical (?). He daydreams about a goldfish that gets flushed down the toilet and grows to monster size, living in the sewers and eating people. The story is about how he slowly comes to terms with his “real” life situation, his mom being gone. A the end of the book, all the people in his daydream city get rid of the monster goldfish by simultaneously flushin their toilets, sweeping the fish out to the sea.
I swear I read these, and have been trying to remember them for 20 years. They would both have been published in the early to mid eighties. Thanks!
The first one, oddly enough, is called…wait for it….Mail Order Wings, by Beatrice Gormley. No help on the second, though.
Vi – that’s it! Her name is Julie, and it’s “A Handful of Stars!” Thank you!
Wish I could help with yours, but neither rings a bell.
I’ve been racking my brain for this one: A Gothic romance for teens (I think, since it was in one of my classrooms in about sixth grade), published possibly as early as the 60s or 70s, but set in the early 20th century. About a girl named Raven–or she has raven tresses, something raven–who is possibly freshly orphaned. She’s got a steady beau, but she leaves him to go to New Orleans to search for information about her family. She catches her beau visiting either a shady lady or house of ill repute, and he’s drunk and wearing a houndstooth suit. She starts falling for some arty type, and she also might turn out to be an octoroon, or something, and it’s all very shocking. There’s also some hoodoo, like with nickels in a circle on a plate, because someone doesn’t want her learning about her past.
This is a great idea, I’m wallowing in nostalgia!
1.When I was younger I read a series of books about a group of friends, I think two of them were called Fern and Stacey, can’t remember the other names. Each book was told from one of the friend’s POVs, I remember that in one book Stacey has a penpal who asks for a picture of her, she sends a picture of her prettier older sister instead. When the penpal comes to visit, her sister has to pretend to be Stacey (the older sister *could* have been called Amanda)…? I might not be right about the names, lol.
2.I read this book years and years ago, found it in a box of my cousins old stuff after she went to college. It was about a really preppy, popular girl who has an older sister that’s estranged from her family. The sister comes back suddenly (I think she’s a failed rockstar or something), and is really wild and has a scary boyfriend, and basically ruins her family’s lives. I’m pretty sure the sister is called Ash, because I remember someone referring to her as “Trash” for a nickname.
I’m going to try this one again. It’s not exactly YA Lit, but…
This book is set around Christmas time…
The lead character is a girl…
She keeps receiving gifts that have to do with the 12 Days of Christmas… for example, she gets 5 golden rings that are on severed fingers…
And I’m almost positive there dead geese and dead swans as well…
It’s not an RL Stine book.
So glad I found this thread! I was reading all these YA blogs and got all nostalgic for a trilogy (I think) I read when I was younger. I can’t remember much. The lead character was a girl named Kendra, but everyone called her Kenny. She had a younger brother (I think) and sister, but I can’t remember their names. I vaguely remember that in the beginning of the first book, they were moving? Eventually she gets these weird powers, and there’s a weird guy she may be in love with and he may be evil, and this is all very descriptive, isn’t it? I hope I’m not misremembering, but I think she gets mad at a gardener (or other lawncare guy), and he ends up falling on some giant shears. I read a lot of the RL Stine and Christopher Pike when I was in middle school, so I hope I’m not mixing up plot details. Anyway, thanks for reading and hopefully someone can make sense of my rambling.
Hey guys, I’m suddenly remembering a book I read in about 7th grade; it’s about a girl who gets meningitis. It’s not Lurlene McDaniel. Anyone have any clue?
Gustie, the main character in “Belonging” by Virginia M. Scott, contracts meningitis and goes deaf. I’m thinking it’s not the book you’re looking for though, since the book focuses more on the fact that she’s now deaf and how she deals with that, rather than on the meningitis.
After contracting meningitis, a fifteen-year-old girl becomes deaf and must struggle with accepting her hearing loss and being accepted by her friends and family.
Woo, that’s it! Thanks!
I am remembering a Christian fiction series that had a girl who got “knocked up” and had a baby who got put up for adoption named Evan. I didn’t read the book about her having Evan (or, er, conceiving him) but I know she referenced him from time to time and might have wrote him letters or made something for him.
I thought for certain it was the “Christy Miller” series (which I know I read at least one book of when I was younger) but I was able to read a couple of those and could tell now I was wrong. There was a series I desperately wish someone would snark called “Cedar River Daydreams” that i know had a character that got pregnant, but I oddly don’t think it was “Evan’s mom.” I just don’t remember what book that came from, or why I remember that detail…
Hi all
My friend has a book she needs “found”. All she remembers is that the main character’s name may have been Shirley and she took a different color purse to school each day of the week.
I know that’s not much to go on but I told her if anyone could solve this mystery it would be someone on this forum.
Thanks in advance!
That’s _The Terrible Truth_ by Stephen Roos (I just looked it up on Amazon, I had forgotten it was written by a man). I read it a bunch of times when I was a kid. Shirley wants to act mature and perfect, and she tries to start an exclusive club, but of course, hijinks ensue.
Oh, God, I think I had one of those Cedar River Daydreams books, and the whole thing was too Christian for me…
Yup, I had _Trouble with a Capital T_. Don’t they pray together at the end??
Hi
Long time lurker.
I’m looking for an 80s teen paperback, in America, when nuclear bombs are launched. Setting: large town or small city. 2 teens (guy & girl) are in the basement of the town hall(???), practicing a play or something. Luckily the basement is a bunker type room, used as a storage room for soft drinks, snacks, and props. Teens survive in there for weeks on the snacks, listening to news on a radio.
Finally the girl is so sick of soft drinks, she convinces the guy to brave the risk of radiation, and they leave the town hall to search for home. Outside: wasteland. A roving gang tries to steal the girl as a sex slave, but the guy fights them off, and the teens get away. I think they find the guy’s house, but it’s demolished. This is the start of a series.
This isn’t ‘After The Bomb’ by Gloria D. Miklowitz. Any help much appreciated. Thanks.
murderedmymuse, that’s The Burning Land, the first book of the too-short Fire Brats series. (By Barbara and Scott Siegel). There were only four published, with an enormous cliffhanger at the end of #4–such a disappointment! I was totally into those in seventh grade.
Thanks so much for that.
I’ve been wondering what it’s been called all those years. I’ve only ever read the first one, cause I’m in Australia and back in the 80s getting in little known American YA series at the library was hit and miss.
Eva (message from July 16th) – the 2nd book you talked about may be Don’t Blame the Music by Caroline B. Cooney. I looked it up on Amazon, and the plots sound similar. Plus the failed singer is called Ashley.
murderedmymuse, I checked it out and that’s the book! Thanks. =)
Glad to help. I’ve never read it, but Cooney is always a good read, isn’t she?
murderedmymuse, that’s The Burning Land, the first book of the too-short Fire Brats series. (By Barbara and Scott Siegel). There were only four published, with an enormous cliffhanger at the end of #4–such a disappointment! I was totally into those in seventh grade.
Okay, I have three that have been driving me nuts for years.
1. A girl starts a catering business over the summer, and keeps it a secret from her mom. She becomes the most popular chef in town and is very busy and makes a ton of money. Her mom finds oregano and possibly powdered sugar in her room, and thinks her daughter is a drug dealer.
2. I have so many details on this one, I must have llloovvveed it. A girl named Skye is starting the sixth grade. She has a best friend named Lizze. Skye’s older brother teases them about how horrible middle school will be. He and Skye play tennis a lot (one time he tells her the martians have landed, she turns to look and he aces his serve). Skye doesn’t have a bra, and she’s jealous of a girl who she watches change for gym class who has a blue lace bra. I think her brother offers to let her wrap her chest in ace bandage, but that could be bleed over from another book. At a dance Skye dances with Lizzie’s crush, Skye is cast out from their group of friends, and she becomes friends with the girl with the blue bra who also plays tennis.
3. I think the main character in this book was named Traci. She has a mad crush on a teacher, possibly a computer teacher? The main thing I remember is she is in a tree carving her initials and the teacher’s initials into it with her sister’s letter opener, and she drops it. It may be silver and turquoise? The letter opener breaks, Traci is grounded/has to work off the cost of the opener. There may be a scene about following the teacher on her bike from the grocery store to see where he lives? She has a best friend who thinks the teacher crush is crazy. I think the cover showed her in the three carving the initials.
Thank you to anyone who remembers these at all! They’ve been bugging me for years.
MsBleuGenes: I’m pretty sure the second book on your list was calld “Who’s Afraid of Sixth Grade?” I read it many times. I always hoped there would be a sequel, but I’m not aware if there ever was.
Yep that’s it. Here’s the description of the title I found online:
“Skye and her friends aren’t sure what to expect of sixth grade at the middle school. Her older brother, Bill, tells them that they have to wear pajamas to school, eat worms in science class, and that the older kids make them carry their books to class, walking backward.
Skye and her friends just try to ignore what Bill tells them. After all, sixth grade can’t be that bad….or can it?”
I wanted a blue lace bra in the worst way after I read this.
Thank you! I still want a blue lace bra. =)
I cannot figure out what this series was–or even how long-lasting a series it was. I think I only read the first book. It was about two girls forced to go to ballet class, and neither wants to. One is blonde and athletic, with short, curly hair, I think. She’s a tomboy, and he family is making her go to make her more ladylike. The other girl is slim and artistic, and but her mother wants her to be a dancer because she once wanted to be one (like every stage mother!). When they get to class, they ditch out while in their leotards and tights (I think the tomboy is grossed out by the baby pink and blue uniform), and escape into the mall separately. While trying to remain inconspicuous (in leotards and tights, of course), they run into one another and form an alliance. After getting into some scrapes, they sneak back into class just before the end. I think the teacher notices they were missing, but gives them some words of wisdom, and the two girls decide to come back next week and try class out.
Been trying to remember what the title of this book was…
I remember it was about a girl where a road was being put through her family’s land where it would cut down big trees that had been there forever. Her room had a window seat it it where she liked to sit, and I think the character’s name was Greta (not positive). She falls in love with young cowboy neighbor who cares for an old neighbor’s arabian horses. She moves to California and he moves to be with her. Somewhere in the book they find an injured fox on the road and nurse it back to health…I think she drives a VW bug too if I remember correctly. Anyone remember this?
Schatzi, was the tomboy’s name Rocky, short for Rochelle?
This site is rad, and I have been so enjoying reading through these “lost and found” comments. I have 3 of my own to ask about:
1. A mystery series (there were at least 2 books, anyway) with 2 sisters: the older one is kind of “Jane Average”–she has frizzy hair, is kind of chubby–and she has a weird nickname like “Flee Jay” or something. The younger one is named Clarissa or Clarice, and she is super-annoyingly-perfect. More middle-grade readers than YA, from the mid-to-late ’80s.
2. Another book about sisters. These ones are twins, and I believe their family has just moved into a new home, or else they have gone to stay with a relative or something. The house they’re in is old (I almost think their bedroom is in a turret?), and the plot is something supernatural, perhaps involving time travel. It’s an older book, probably from the ’60s or ’70s. I remember really liking it, but now the entire plot escapes me. The one detail that sticks out is that one of the sisters would always sit up in bed and touch her toes every morning when she woke up because “she’d heard it made girls graceful.” (I know, totally random thing to remember!)
3. Ok, this is actually a young children’s illustrated book that I absolutely adored when I was little. It’s about a little girl who goes to spend the summer at the seashore with her grandma or aunt. She finds 2 kittens, an orange one and a black one. When she goes home at the end of the summer, she can only bring one of the cats with her. She realizes that one of them is really active and spends a lot of time outside and the other one is a really cuddly housecat, so she takes the latter home with her, and the other one stays at the beach with her grandma/aunt. I have been trying to find this book for years, but I have no author or title to go on. I am pretty sure “seashore” is part of the title, but that’s such a common word that I haven’t had any luck using it to search.
Thanks!
The first one you mentioned about the sisters Flee Jay and Clarice might be either The Case of the Vanishing Villain, or The Case of the Lost Lookalike, both by Carol J. Farley.
The Barnes & Noble synopsis mention the names Flee Jay and Clarice, and that Clarice is the genius of the family.
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Case-of-the-Vanishing-Villain/Carol-J-Farley/e/9780380899593
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Case-of-the-Lost-Lookalike/Carol-J-Farley/e/9780380754502
Thank you! Those are the two I remember reading.
Oh how I love this site! I’m thinking of a series of books from the mid to late 80s about a girl that time travels? The one I recall most clearly (because I was OBSESSED with Gone With The Wind during this period of my life) she goes back to Civil-War era America? But there was a whole series and she went to different times and places? For some reason I want to think her name was Scarlett or a title had Scarlett in it? Or maybe this is my old brain combining GWTW with this series.
Amanda – I think it might be Swept Away by Eileen Goudge. I just ran across it on Ebay.
Okay I have another one. Circa Christopher Pike, R.L. Stein – probably definitely maybe one of those Point thriller books.
This is what I remember… a group of friends, teenagers, go into a diner or a buger place, something very Dairi Burgeresque, and there is this new arcade game of a fortune teller thing of a creepy woman. You put in the money and make a wish or some shit and a bit of paper spits out with your fortune or something.
I remember all the wishes came true but really wrong. Like one girl wished to lose weight and she became anorexically skinny and couldn’t put the weight back on again and ended up dying in hospital or something. The tag line, was of course, something like ‘Be Careful What You Wish For’ but I don’t think that’s the title cos I’ve googled it with no love.
Any thoughts?
I love this site. Go IHW – epic win.
Hi. I am 99% sure this is a book called The Wish #04 from the series Nightmare Hall by Diane Hoh. I remember the girl who kept losing weight. She would keeping eating junk food (which she loved), yet kept losing weight.
I read this series way back, and this is the only book whose plot stuck with me. Also the reviews on Amazon seem to confirm it’s the book you’re talking about.
Good luck.
Vi — I couldn’t see whether anyone had answered yours or not, but the one about the kid who lives with his grandma is called The Thousand-Pound Goldfish, by Betsy Byars.
Does anyone remember a book, published somewhere between 1980 and 1990 probably, about a girl named Jessie who has to move to Florida (I forget why) and sneaks in her cat Simba, because the condo complex where she has to live won’t allow cats? There turn out to be this elderly couple who are cat burglars (ha ha) in the complex, but nobody suspects them, and Jessie gets on the case. She also gets a crush on this guy (I think his name’s Carlos) who lives in the complex too and starts off being a smartass and stuff, but eventually gets to like her.
Clues?
This sounds like The Incredible Cat Caper by Kelley Roos.
http://www.amazon.com/Incredible-Cat-Caper-Kelley-Roos/dp/0385294085
I LOVED this book! The illustrations were so appealing to me for some reason.
This is a teenage romance, from a type of ‘Sweet Dreams’ or ‘Keepsake’ series. It’s set during winter (snowy) and the main character might be called Holly (not sure). Anyway, she gets a crush on a guy who is a year younger than her. Her friends give her rubbish about it. And the whole thrust of the plot is will she have the courage to ignore her friends to be with the guy she loves.
Scenes I remember: She and the guy take part in an experiment to try and pass a lie detector test. If the participants pass they get, like, $500. The guy has a method he devised for this and is the only one who passed. The girl is bummed she failed, as she needed the money for her dollhouse building hobby.
Another scene: She and her friends go snow mobiling one weekend. I think the guy goes with them, but doesn’t fit in–as she and her friends are talking about things from their grade, which he doesn’t know much about.
Thanks for any help.
I just posted this in the first thread, but I’ll post it here too. It’s more recently read, it appears.
Ok, so on our many cross-country trips, my parents would buy me random books at stops along the way, because I would have already devoured whatever I’d brought to read along the way. So I have several random-ass books that are likely parts of series which I never read again, aside from the one book. If anyone knows any, I will be super grateful!
1) A sort of mystery/adventure series. I think there were 4 books in it, that I know of, anyway. The main character’s name was Cassandra, who went by Cassie (a previous post about a character of that name reminded me of this), and her best friend, who I think was her pen pal, was Alexandra. I think she lived in England. They were about 16. I think they were in England in one book, and in the Florida Keys in another.
2) 12 year old horseback riders. That doesn’t narrow it down much, I know. They were twin girls, redheads, and they wore colors that sounded like they’d be atrocious together, like pink shirts and kelly green pants. The book I read, their parents bought them a horse (naturally, a golden Palomino) and the horse was the only one who could tell the girls apart all the time.
3) All I remember of this one is a white girl went to spend the summer, I think it was, with a Native American (maybe Algonquin? I’m fairly sure it was New York) family. They had a daughter the same age as the white girl, and she didn’t like Whitey because she thought she was all condescending and shit. She got her guy friends to help her play tricks on her to try to get her to leave. Something happened, I don’t know what, and they became friends. The book was full of (stereo)typical Indian names, like Redbird and such.
4) This one’s a long shot. All I remember of THIS one is another horseback riding girl, trying to train her horse to jump like the Lipizzaner horses. I think they were out in California. There was a movie shoot or something, and the bitchy star took out a horse where there were wildfires, and the protagonist went to rescue her, and lo and behold, her horse did the Lipizzaner leap over the fire line to rescue the other girl.
At the moment, I’m also trying to figure out which dollhouse book I’m remembering. Girl finds a dollhouse in the attic which looks exactly like the house she’s in (grandparents’ house, maybe?) with little dolls. She puts the dolls away, but when she comes back, they’ve moved on their own to recreate a murder or accident scene, I forget which it is.
Never mind on the last one. That one’s The Dollhouse Murders.
-The first one, oddly enough, is called…wait for it….Mail Order Wings, by Beatrice -Gormley. No help on the second, though.
I had a book by the same author called “Fifth Grade Magic” and really liked it.
I hadn’t thought about this book in years. A man is a country-music singer, he has lovely songs such as “you’re 50 pounds too much woman for me”, which I think included the lyric “if you get eating off your mind/I’ll get cheating off of mine”. He had two kids, a girl named Retta and I forget the boy’s name. “Retta” was short for “Loretta Lynn”, which her brother would call her when he was mad with her. I don’t remember where the mother was, but the father had a lady friend who made them fried PB&J. I think the girl ends up running away? Anyone else remember this?
That’s The Night Swimmers. I can’t remember the author’s name off-hand. The brothers had country singer names, too–Roy Acuff was one, can’t think of the other. The mom had died in an accident–the dad had a song about that, too– “My baby went to heaven in a something something,” I don’t remember what.
I really liked that book when I was a kid, but I can’t believe I had forgotten about those fat-hating song lyrics…and another piece of the puzzle that is is my effed-up body image falls into place. Yikes.
Oh, I think the other brother was named for Johnny Cash. Heh. Way to forget the obvious one.
And they would sneak into rich peoples’ swimming pools at night, hence the title.
That’s it! Thank you. I’d completely forgotten about them sneaking into pools. I googled and it’s by Betsy Byars.
Not very much at all to go on here, I’m afraid:
Girl has a Schipperke. Or maybe her neighbors do. One detail I remember is that her neighbors have sons named Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Also, maybe something about eating grapes?
Ha ha, pathetic I know. :^)
– AJ
I’m looking for a novel that I read in the early ’90s; despite having read and enjoyed it several times, I’ve forgotten the title and author!
I have some very fuzzy, and possibly misleading, details:
- It was published in the late ’80s-early ’90s, give or take a decade.
- The protagonist is a high school girl who falls for a college student.
- She has day of the week underwear.
- She thinks a one night stand is called a nightstand.
- The girl’s older sister is named Sarah who has saved a condom in a jar.
- The college guy she falls for is named Moishe/Moshe; he goes to Columbia University and is a misanthropist of sorts.
- The girl and Moishe have a troubled relationship and eventually break up, possibly over a misunderstanding.
- He takes a college age girl to a dance he and the protagonist were supposed to attend together.
I’m pretty sure it’s not by Norma Fox Mazer, Norma Klein, Judy Blume or Paul Zindel.
Does anyone remember a book called Caught in the Act? It was about two friends who play soccer at a boarding school. One of them has issues about the fact that they aren’t as rich as the other kids. The protagonist is the goalie and the other girl is one of the team’s high scorers. Anyway, the one girl is embarrassed that they’re on scholarhip. She ends up on drugs. I can’t remember how it ends. I bought it back in the day at one of those scholastic book fairs but I’ve lost my copy over the years. The cover has a picture of a dark haired girl and a girl with reddish hair. The dark haired girl has a shocked look on her face, and I think the reddish haired girl is either stealing something from a bag or else she’s trying to sneak drugs out of the bag? I looked for it on Amazon and Half.com, but I think it’s out of print. Does anyone own it or remember it? Can anyone tell me the author’s name?
1. Two New York City families, one with a teenage daughter and one with a teenage son, sell their apartments and buy a farm together. They take it to the extreme and grow all of their own food and sew all of their own clothes and even make their own soap. The teen girl and boy end up falling in love.
2. Two best friends meet two boys in a convenience store. The blonde ends up dating the blonde, and the brunette dates the brunette but then the blonde girl and the brunette boy end up falling in love with each other and dating behind everyone’s back.
The first one is “It’s an Aardvark-Eat-Turtle World” by Paula Danziger, sequel to The Divorce Express by the same author.