Author: mondomolly

I don’t have much to go on. A kid/YA book that I checked out from my grade school’s library. Between 87-92. I remember reading it in earlier years, and I read it more than once. It was about a young girl who was solving some kind of mystery. Not sure if it was a game or a real mystery. And she was cracking some kind of a code in an old house. Like on a lock or safe or something. And the book showed dashed lines for the code like _ _ _ _ etc. And every time she found a letter, the book filled in the letters. ____S____E___
The code ends up being Chrysanthemum. And it’s IMPOSSIBLE to search for this because there is a book called Chrysanthemum.

 Looking for a YA book about a piano player coming to terms with being adopted and her boyfriend takes drugs. The cover showed a girl at a piano in 60s style clothing

I’ve been trying to track down this book for a couple of decades. All I remember was it was a paperback published sometime in the 1970s or 1980s, the narrator was a teen girl and she had a brother who was around preschool age and disabled. The brother would regularly have physical therapy sessions in their home. I only remember one quote, when the brother said something like “my damned fingers won’t/don’t work” and the sister tells him “you shouldn’t say damn.” Suggestion: A Boy Called Hopeless By MJ By David Melton 

 I’m hoping to find a book I read scores ago. Teenage girl with a punk rock/rock best friend (Renee?) and this guy who liked her possibly unofficial boyfriend. One day she sees her dad with another woman. She follows him one day and calls his office and the Secretary mistakes him for the other woman and jokes with her before putting the call through to him. I thought it was called Daddy’s Girl but nothing comes up with that name (that would be considered YA) The cover was a girl ina denim jacket watching a couple from a distance on a sidewalk in front of a store.

 There was a series i read back in middle school and the only thing I really remember is this girl moved to (i believe) chicago,started making friends,and dates one of their brothers.she is a medium,and at some point she goes into a coma of sorts,and finds out this dead woman that she has know for years is actually her birth mom,and that she was adopted.Her birth mom’s name started with a B,i think.She breaks up with her boyfriend,and at some point,in another book,her adopted mom sends her to therapy for everything she sees,because her adopted mom doesn’t really believe her.I think this may be before she goes into the coma,not sure.In another book,after she broke up with her ex,her adopted parents send her to some type of medium camp to be around people who understand how she feels.She ends up meeting a guy,who wears gloves for a touch to feeling reason,i think,and they end up getting together,but before they do,they help spirits in the forest who are trapped-in a sense-move beyond to the other side.I know there is another book after that,but i can’t remember it for the life of me.

I am looking for a book I read in the 1960s about a girl, and a boy from England who moves next door. The girl likes the way he says ‘bath’ with his English accent. When getting ready for a party, the girl plaits her hair more loosely than usual so the plaits will lie flat when she winds them around her head. She leans over a steaming pot/kettle so that tendrils form around her face. I think the setting was rural. I borrowed the book from a public library in Chicago. Suggestion: Witch’s Sister by Phyllis REynolds Naylor

 I have searched off and on for a book that I read partially back in the mid 1970’s (I read it in 1975 or 1976) and always wanted to find.  It was one of those books that girls would secretly pass around school.  It was about a young teen couple who got pregnant, married and tried to make a go of it living in a city – (NY?).  They had a hard life.  I remember the line “Tell me that you love me now.” and thought that was the title, but have never found it.  I recently saw the book Forever, by Judy Blume, and thought that might be it as the timing was right, the author was big at my school at the time and it was controversial, but the plot was different (she doesn’t get pregnant and I think they split up in the end), so that isn’t it, but I think I recall that one floating around at the time too – I remember that title.

I don’t know why it bugs me so much all these decades later, perhaps because I never finished the book?  It’s just always bugged me that I can’t find it.  If you know what this book is, I’d appreciate it if you could tell me the title.  It sort of reminds me of that movie Molly Ringwald did about teen pregnancy, but that isn’t the exact storyline either. Suggestion: Mr and Mrs Bo Jo Jones by Ann Head

OK, very hard to describe this book that’s too vivid not to forget, a sense that it’s always been there, it has to be.  It’s a children’s picture book. All I remember are the pictures.  Wild exotic animals roaming around places around the city, like a park.  One image that haunted me was a lion that was in a library.  The art was gorgeous and felt intimidating.  I had to be 3-7 reading this book in the early 90s.  Book could’ve came out in the 80s or 70s but it didn’t feel old. Suggestion: Animalia, by Graeme Base