Category: Name That Book Request

Read a book in the late 90s that I have been searching for. For years. Unfortunately the copy I had at the time (early 2000s) my mom borrowed and accidentally left at a hospital when she had surgery for cancer at the time. And, I can’t find the book at all! Driving me crazy.

The book starts with a boy having issues with his mom who doesn’t really take care of him well(Think just bad parenting and drugs and alcohol perhaps). She sends him to live with her parents in the small town she grew up in. To keep him out of trouble. Fire starting is part of it though I can’t seem to remember if Fire is in the title or not. The small town is different for him and his grandparents are strict. He meets his dad for the first time as his dad stayed in that town and started a life and everything. There’s a fire at some point and he is to blame but I don’t really remember anything else.

 1960s innercity (probably NY) Teen girl is new and meets a trouble making group. A girl named Juanita steals something and the main character gets blamed for it. I’m still struggling to remember more. Something about a new sweater??? Suggestion: Ellen and the Gang by Frieda Friedman

 I am looking for a book for teen literature that was about a boy in school (don’t recall if it’s elementary, middle or high school) where he was a bad basketball player and unpopular but then he learned to visualize without feelings to shoot the basketball and became great and popular but did not experience the feeling of joy and at the end he had to make a free throw shot and decided not to use his visualization technique instead tried to use his ability and made the last shot and he felt joy instead of nothing. I thought it was a scholastic apple published booked, the art work of the cover was in baby blue I think.

I think a lot about a YA book I read in the early 80s, probably a Scholastic book. I believe it was written from the POV of a teen girl and was about her and a male friend. I think she might have been a twin. The male was a quiet, reclusive guy. They were both unhappy at home, and made a plan to run away to the redwood forest, a state forest? in Northern California. They guy planned most of it. They left and lived in the woods, sometimes going into a small town. I think eventually the girl leaves and the guy stays in the woods. Thanks for any suggestions.

For the longest time I’ve been trying to find the title of a book I read & loved in 2nd or 3rd grade. That would have been the mid-1980s. The books is set in Italy. An American family (or British) are there in the summer…either renting a place or having just bought a place. The story is a mystery/adventure told from one of the kids point of view. Any suggestions or ideas would be much appreciated! Thank you. Suggestion: The Famous Stanley Kidnapping Case by Zilpha Keatley Snyde

 I’ve tried searching for this book to no avail, so I hope there might be someone here who knows how this one. It’s a young adult book, probably from 1980 or 1981. It involves three girls who are friends, and there’s a zodiac theme. All three are different zodiac signs (I’m pretty sure I remember one is a Leo), and I think the story is utilizing their horoscopes to live their best lives. Of course, there are problems they have to overcome. The only other thing I remember is one of the girls takes an art class and is shocked when there is a nude male model, although she doesn’t dislike it, LOL.

.Hi, im looking for a book that is about a girl with cáncer, i think leukemia, whose parents resign their Jobs and sell their house with the goal of going in a travel with their own recently bought boat to enjoy the Last months of life of their daughter

I can’t even remember the title of the book but I do remember what the cover was. It was of a boy with flies coming out of his mouth. The book is a childrens book, I believe, and each chapter was a different story. One story in particular was about this guy who moved into an old abandoned lighthouse in the middle of an island that has bad winds. The lighthouse is haunted by these musicians, one I know plays the violin specifically. He couldn’t see the ghosts but only the instruments as they held them. They tried to escape from the winds outside and he watched as the floating instruments be carried out to sea. That’s the one short story I mainly remember and another one is really vague, just basically about a creepy outhouse that was in their relatives backyard. I can’t remember what it was called, but it’s one of those old fashioned bathrooms that people used to keep in their backyard, kind of like an outhouse. That’s all I remember. Unreal: Eight Surprising Stories by Paul Jennings solved by Lost Classics Reader Rachel and a second Anonymous reader!

I read this story years ago about a teenage girl who goes to a weight-loss camp for the summer (she calls it “fat camp”) to lose some weight before the school year starts. A weird detail was that the camp specifically included a “terry robe” on the packing list. The weightloss camp is only the setting, the story ends up developing into a murder mystery/misunderstanding (not sure here, but i don’t think anyone actually died in the story). There was a man who was the love interest (he worked at the camp i think), who the protagonist suspected of being involved in some scary activities. Main character’s parent’s didn’t want her to lose more than 10 or so lbs, so she had to sneak away from camp and eat an enormous sandwich so she could slow down her weightloss and continue her investigation. One of the women in the camp used chopsticks in order to eat her meals more slowly. 

I am trying to find an American book that I read probably in the early 1980s but I think the book is older than that, probably from the 1970s. The book is about a young white girl (I want so say she is poor/), who is training to be a dancer (maybe a ballerina).  

The girl gets impatient with her trainer’s methods, and he shows her that it is necessary to learn the fundamentals before she spreads her wings.  He demonstrates by doing some sort of comic dance routine (or possibly mime), and then (I think) he does some sort of impressive, more traditional dance routine.  

I think the girl develops a crush on some guy, and toward the end of the book, there is a dance, and she is feeling more confident.  She has managed to find/make a candy green apple dress (possible matching purse and/or shoes).