Request #164

I’m looking desperately for one of my old favorite YA books. It’s about a teenage male and female. The male has lost one of his friends to I think suicide? And he’s ridden with guilt he even has a dream of that friend telling him to let him go. And all I can really remember about the female is she smokes in this area the school as designated for it where she talks to a guy in a leather jacket and she also at one point in the book I think while drunk was frustrated about her connection with the male and tried to strip in front of his friends because at some point I think she was raped but he didn’t know that so while she was drunk and doing that he helped her to a room to sleep and she asked him not to let anyone get her. Suggestions: The Face at the Edge of the World by Eve Bunting, About David by Susan Beth Pfeffer, Remembering the Good Times by Richard Peck. 

Request #162

I read a YA book in late 80s/early 90s about an older teenager who agrees to babysit two (?) kids for a single dad over the summer. I think maybe it was set in Canada or the woods or by a lake? At the end of the book the dad declares he’s fallen in love with this teenager and I think he chases her through the woods. I know she ends up a tree with him declaring his (age inappropriate) love for her below. It was a bizarre and, frankly, alarming twist even at the time, but I’d love to find it again

Request #161

I remember reading a book in the 80s about a girl who makes a wish on a wishbone that her house inside becomes filled with grass, plants, etc. Her wish comes true and gradually her house is filled with nature but then it becomes out of control. She has to use the wishbone to break the wish. Its more of a chapter book for younger readers but I still would love to find anything about it. A second reader is looking for this one and remembers the following deatails: 
I agree, it must be for younger readers because I think I read it at age 7 or 8 (also in the 80s). The only detail I can add is that I think it had very detailed pencil sort of drawing illustrations. And I think maybe the main character’s name was Meg.

Solved by Lost Classics reader Jenny: Gertie’s Green Thumb by Catherine Dexter

Request #160

 Hello I hope who ever sees this is having a great day, but I hope someone could help me find this book I read a long time ago and I only have tiny details of the book but it’s a book meant for mostly young kids but I think oddly really want to read it now, basically this book is about this girl who’s only friend moves away but the girl joins this like yearbook committee I think and then this one time in the book the girl calls her friend and the friend didn’t realize she didn’t hang up and she started talking bad about her to her new friends, there’s also this other time where the mom forces the girl to go to a party and once the mom drops her off she just hides behind the bushes and doesn’t actually go to the party, but that’s all I can remember if you have anything or any ideas please let me know I just really want to find it it’s been stuck in the my head for forever.

Request #159

I’m looking for a YA book (or book of short stories with a reincarnation theme) I read while living in Kansas in the 1980s that followed a reincarnated soul. There was one soul, a young boy, who lived in ancient times along the Nile river. He may have had a deformity, and felt ostracized. I think he was secretly in love with a young neighbor girl, and I believe he ended up drowning in the Nile. There was another character from centuries ago who lived in Europe or the middle east, or Mediterranean area, who sat at night in the dark on the roof of their house with their father who taught him/her about astronomy. I can’t remember much about it, it was so long ago, and I’ve been looking for it for about 25 years. Thanks for any help!

Request #158

I’m looking for a YA series from the 80s, mass market paperback. It was about a girl entering the modeling world. There were maybe 3 or 4 books in the series. The girl was tall and brunette. The cover was an editorial close up of a model who looked like Kelly Lebrock. One scene that stands out is a snotty, more experienced model thinking she knew that a shoot was going to be “four seasons” themed but got the wrong girls for the seasons. The heroine ended up being the main “season” for the shoot. Drives me crazy I can’t think of it but obviously recall I’ve part Suggestions: Models series (unknown author), Over the Hill at Fourteen by Jamie Callam, Kelly Blake: Teen Model series by Yvonne Green 

Request #157

oof – ok so I remember reading a book in the late 80s early 90s – but it could have been set in 1970s. A young girl in highschool is quite a strong ballerina but one day for some reason she drifts into the gym after gymnastics practice. The young coach asks if she wants to try out some of hte equipment and she starts to really love it and goes back regularly. I think she may initially hide her gymnastics workouts from her parents but eventually has to admit that she wants to be more competitive as a gymnast and they probably come round in the end and support her. She and the young coach are flirty but I can’t remember if they dateYou Don’t Have To Be A Perfect Girl by Patricia Aks solved by Lost Classics reader Sheesh