Category: Name That Book Request

Request #56

I’ve been searching for a book i read in the 70’s possibly 80’s. I think the book cover had a hunter and a deer or stag on it. The book starts out with a man walking through or hunting in the woods and he ends up in another world or dimension. He meets a wizard or magician and at the end of the book the wizard turns himself into the deer or stag and sacrifices himself for the hunter in exchange for his help when they were in the other world.   Update: Tsuga’s Children by Thomas Williams, solved by Lost Classics reader Marion 

Request #55

Looking for a teen reader book from 70’s
The girl was coming of age, “Freddie” for short for Fredericka. Went on vacation for the Summer to the beach, Mother paints. A SECOND reader is looking for this book as well and has provided these additional details: 

I’m also looking for #55! Freddie Brewer & family drive to Long Island to their summer house on the beach. Grandmother brings along a potted chicken. They are joined by Freddie’s aunt and an uncle; the aunt kisses Freddie’s dad while she watches them, hiding behind a freshly-watered bush, ruining the hem of her tangerine dress. Freddie has just returned from her date, where guy put his hand on her breast while kissing her — very racy reading for a 12-year-old in 1971-72! A few other details might jog someone’s memory: Freddie writes poetry with a special pen. She buys a one-piece swimsuit (wisp of fabric) that stretches to fit her developing figure. She can remember herself as a toddler, with her mother as she paints on the dunes, trying to pick out the dark purple center of a Queen Anne’s lace blossom. I believe the word “Seventeen” might be the title, or part of the title, but all of my searching turns up the WRONG books — not Maureen Daly, Booth Tarkington, etc. What I especially remember is the cover illustration (art, not photo) of paperback (probably Scholastic): closeup of girl with long, straight, possibly sun-bleached hair, windblown, eyes downcast so we see her upper lashes (not her eyes) as she faces the reader, with beach/ocean in background. [I have to wonder if this book might have been banned due to that racy scene? Every other book I ever bought from Scholastic is out there in cyberspace, but NOT the one with Freddie Brewer!] I’ve searched titles, topics, genres, location, and Freddie as a character to no avail. Even extended perusals of cover images on Google, Etsy, ebay, etc. came up blank. I KNOW this book is real, and #55 query proves it!!! I read it school year 71-72, but it could date from 60s; that racy scene appears too contemporary for 50s. Anyone???

A THIRD reader remembers this one too, and adds: 
 I remember that they went to Moriches on Long Island and they made a joke about the mosquito bites and “more itches” 

Request #54

My partner remembers one of his favorite books, as a kid, was about a boy whose parents are grifters… his father sells “miracle cures” and they have to skip town and can’t settle down anywhere. At one point, his parents steal a trailer and the boy can’t take the lifestyle anymore, so he runs away to live with his grandparents. Then, his father invents something that makes him wealthy, and the boy must decide whether to stay with his grandparents or go back to his parents. My partner can’t remember any of the characters’ names, but he thinks the title sounds something like “Outside, Looking In.”Also, the cover had a boy looking out a car window. And my partner read it in 4th grade, he thinks… so probably in 1988-ish. Outside Looking In by James Lincoln Collier submitted by Lost Classics Reader daisyporter

Request #53

Can anyone track this book down? Set during the Great Depression. Main character is a girl (Meg?) who becomes friends with a new neighbor (possibly Gwendolyn?) who is very snooty because her father has a good job. She has a fancy dollhouse with furniture and a scrapbook of the British princesses (Elizabeth and Margaret) they are both obsessed with. Later in the book, it gets found out her father’s good job was something illegal and he gets arrested, so they have to sell their belongings, are very poor, and leave the town in disgrace. Before leaving, she gives the doll house icebox and scrapbook to her friend, and apologizes for being so snooty.
I read this in the 80s, but it was an old book so could have been published in the 60s or 70s. Suggestion: The Majesty of Grace by June Langton

Request #52

 I am racking my brain for the name of a young adult book (fiction) 1980s-maybe Scholastic-I remember it was about a girl (Jen or Alison?) who meets a new beautiful best friend; Eventually Jen/Alison transforms herself and gets the guy. I remember one of her parents was a surgeon and made some comment like “I am a surgeon not a chef”. Weird what I remember lol. Thanks for your help! The Best Of Friends by Jill Ross Klevin (part of the Wildfire series) solved by Lost Classics reader Sheesh

Request #51

Looking for a book that’s like a kids version of A Simple Plan, where two boys find a briefcase or duffle bag full of money in the woods and start spending it on things like a trip to an amusement park, but eventually a bad guy comes looking for it. Would have read it late elementary school or early middle school in the mid to late nineties. Reader suggestions: The Runaways by Ruth Thompson and Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce, Closed for the Season by Mary Downing Hahn

Request #50

 I’m dreaming of finding a book I read in elementary school and lent out, but sadly never got back. Young adult, published before 1983 for sure. A boy from a small town was somehow lost, maybe on an island, and was alone for a while, unable to get home. Somehow he got back to his hometown, and on the day he arrived back, there was a town fair. He went up to the girl he had liked when he was younger who happened to be at a kissing booth at the fair, she didn’t recognize him, and he kissed her and said “you taste like strawberries”, and then she recognized him and was happy to see him again after so long.

Request #49

 I’m junior high school I read a teen romance mystery novel about a high school couple who were torn apart by a boy and a girl. It was also Halloween and they were all trying to set up a haunted murder scene that took place many years ago. In the end both the bad boy and girl got busted for trying to harm the nice girl. I also think that there was something with a dress that used to belong to the murdered woman from many years ago and was worn by the nice girl. On the cover is a guy and girl holding each other. I would guess that this book came out in either the 80’s to early 90’s. Thanks.

Request #48

So I wish I had more information about this one because it’s been driving me crazy for years. A friend gave it to me when I was probably 8 or 9 (so first half of the 90s), but who knows how old that copy was at the time (definitely second-hand). I remember very few details other than it involved a village near a crescent shaped valley and at the climax of the book everyone went there in the middle of the night and some beings appeared (aliens? fairies?). I feel like maybe there was something about missing children tied in with that (maybe they were what appeared)? I remember how I felt reading it (slightly confused, slightly creeped out) more than I remember the book itself and I wondered if it was a title translated from another language – although I don’t have anything really to pin that on other than I found the people weird and decided they must live somewhere else. I remembered the title as “The Valley of the Crescent Moon” but that doesn’t get any results that seem right. I might be inclined to think I dreamed it if I didn’t remember being annoyed that my friend misspelled my name inside the front cover. Suggestion: Born INto Light By PAul Samuel JAcobs