Category: Name That Book Request

My request is about a book I read in 6th grade, which would have been sometime in 1991-1992, about a teen girl whose name I do not recall, but she had an aunt named Barbara who she went to stay with for the summer. Barbara was older, and a widow who never had children, and I remember that she was very frugal, keeping the same clothes for years at a time. However, she did like to splurge on new cars, I even remember the quote, “the only thing Aunt Barbara spent serious money on was cars”, or something like that. The girl and Barbara become close over the summer, and the girl tells her aunt about the SA (or maybe an attempted one) that she’d survived. Aunt Barbara was the first person she’d ever told about it. I don’t remember much else about the plot, but I remember that Barbara dies towards the end of the book, and that the girl thinks it would be nice if Barbara and her late husband are reunited in Heaven. I don’t remember who the author was, I think it was a female author but I’m not 100% sure. I don’t know if this sounds familiar to anyone else but I thought I’d give it a try. 

This was a short story I read in middle school, 5-7 years ago, I don’t remember if it was in a book or magazine, but it was not online. It was horror story about a teenaged girl who sets a trap for a man who has been abusing local kids. The main thing I remember is that somehow this trap involved making him a ‘sugar cream pie” but I can’t remember if it was posioned or if it somehow trapped him some other way. I would really like to find this story and read it again, thanks!

This is a more recent book (last 10 years maybe???) about a girl who is plain/unpopular who discovers her longtime childhood friend/boyfriend is a fairy. I remember it has a really memorable minimalist cover that was clearly inspired by the Twilight series covers that were disembodied fairy wings.

Hi, I’m looking for a YA book, possibly published 1950s-1980s, as a broad range. But I believe it would have been more likely published 1960s-70s. I read the book sometime between 1981 and 1984 in elementary school. The book was a mystery, and involved a girl who is sent to some type of boarding school or summer program in a castle or chateau, possibly in France, or Italy. She has an injury that causes her a lot of pain, and she has to have some type of physical therapy treatments that are also very painful. She’s doesn’t like being in the school/program, and doesn’t make friends there easily. She and some of the other students go on an outing in one scene of the book. The teacher buys the younger students some ice cream and asks if she would like some, too, but she opts for some type of fruit drink or squash, because she is afraid it will make her look like a “baby” to choose the ice cream, even though she really doesn’t like the fruit drink, and finds it sticky and tasteless. She meets a boy about her own age who has some connection to the castle or chateau, and he also has some physical issue with his back, like scoliosis or a hump on his back,  and is quite surly with her at first. But they eventually become embroiled in a mystery together and (I think) become friends or allies in solving the mystery. I think the mystery involves a missing treasure or painting or some other piece of art. I have tried Googling, and have also searched Google Books many times with varying key words, to no avail. Someone here on the old blog post suggested And Both Were Young by Madeleine L’Engel. However, I don’t think this is it. I checked out the book and read through a great deal of it. While it is admittedly similar, this doesn’t seem to be the one I’m searching for. I don’t recall any hint of romance in the book I read so long ago, and in my memory, the girl and boy meeting for the first time is quite contentious, and doesn’t involve a heart to heart by a lake. I also don’t recall the protagonist skiing (as in ABWY); I feel like it is set in warmer months. I have also posted on the What’s the Name of that Book Goodreads page and some very kind folks have linked me to some lists of YA fiction set in different countries, but as of right now, none of these are a match. Many of the YA books suggested are heavy on the bad girl sent to boarding school angle, and/or romance.  I don’t feel this was very present, if at all, in the book I read.  The only other scene I remember is at one point, the girl looks outside in the night and sees the boy’s face looking up, reflected in the moonlight.  I feel his name might be Andre or Rene.  Many thanks!

The only part I remember is that something goes wrong with the red dye in breakfast cereal and during cold season when everyone throwing up/having other GI issues people think it’s much worse than it is, causing a publicity nightmare for the cereal company.

Your readers came through so fast with my last mystery I thought I’d try another. A friend of mine gave me a romance novel for my birthday in either 1985 or 1986. I cannot remember the title. The protagonist is a young tennis prodigy who for some reason ends up at a rich man’s island paradise, I think in or near Bermuda. She wants to leave the island but for some reason the planes are delayed. There’s a May/December thing going on. She learns that when she was just starting playing tennis he was winning Wimbledon. She goes shopping around the island and some (him)? gets her a sexy wrap dress/jumpsuit as an “Easter Egg” present. Then a hurricane comes and they are stranded in the house together. The rich dude’s valet makes finger foods they can eat when the power goes out, which of course it does, and they have a romantic hurricane interlude. I can’t remember how it ends but since it’s a romance novel I’m sure they end up together. I feel like the cover was white…maybe Harlequin romance?

Two young girls living in NYC, go to private school, live in modern high-rise. One is white, one is asian, reminds me of Eloise stories, but for slightly older kids. I remember they loved getting dressed up in their mother’s evening gowns and drinking seltzer out of martini glasses.

A book about an American ballet class. The only part I remember is that a Eurpoean student comes to visit and is very critical of how undisciplined the american students are.

I’m usually pretty good at finding these but not this one.

It was a teen romance that was probably published in the late fifties, early sixties. I believe the main character’s name was Cassie; I think there was also a boy named Rory in the story. I’m pretty sure there was some sort of betrayal perpetrated by those two involving a stolen kiss that was flavored by salt air, or something along those lines. It was probably mass market size and I think the color was yellow with a drawing of Cassie (if that was her name) on it.

Thanks very much!

It’s a lot like Freaky Friday only it’s about a father and son instead of a mother and daughter. The son in the dad’s body goes to Hollywood and has a succesful career while his dad has to go to summer camp.

REad it in the early 1990s.