Category: Name That Book Request

Request #25

 I am looking for a “teen romance” from the 80’s…it’s about a girl named Callie who falls for a lifeguard at the local pool named Kurt, who does not reciprocate her feelings. She has a little sister named Tessa and a good guy friend named Rusty, who she ends up realizing her feelings for at the end. I cannot remember the title! The cover shows a girl standing at a lifeguard stand looking up at him. Thanks for any suggestions!  Why Am I Too Young by Alida Young found by Lost Classics reader Laura! 

Request #24

 I am trying to remember the title and author of a book I read in c. 1986, when I was about 11. It was about a girl who goes to stays with her relative for a period of time. She meets a woman who, it is revealed later in the book, is her recovering alcoholic mother. She befriends an elderly man who has a German Shepherd named MacDuff. MacDuff is swept out to sea when the girl almost drowns, but is later found safe and brought home.  Now Is Not Too Late by Isabelle Holland identified by Lost Classics reader ninyabruja! 

Request #23

 I’m hoping someone can help out with this one. It probably would have been published sometime in the ’60s, but possibly earlier. It’s about a brother & sister named Mary Jo & James who are accidental stowaways on a ship headed to Germany. They’re caught almost immediately & have to work for their passage – Mary Jo by peeling potatoes & James by shining shoes. The local bad girl – who I think was named Lizzie – was responsible for them being stuck on the ship in the first place. Mary Jo & James have been hanging out with Bad Girl Lizzie because they’ve been temporarily sent to live with a (very unpleasant) neighbor due to their younger sister being sick with something – possibly scarlet fever? – & they will do anything to avoid being in the neighbor’s house. That’s about all I remember except that I think there’s something about one of the sailors from the ship coming to their house for Christmas at the end. The Surprise of Their Lives identified by Lost Classics reader Norma! 

Request #22

I read this in 1965 and was under the impression it was pretty contemporary.   The story concerns  a young teenage girl whose family spends summers  somewhere on the Atlantic coast. This particular summer they have an older teenage girl board with them and she’s a bit rough around the edges but is kind and wants to improve he self and her circumstances.   She has a buttery soft yellow leather jacket that the younger teen admires.  The older teen gets into some sort of scrape and decides to move on as she believes it to be in everyone’s best interest.  She quietly leaves behind the yellow jacket as a gift to her young friend. I remember the cover depicted ocean, pier, maybe an old house, and a bit of stormy weather. Suggestion: The Sea Gulls Woke Me by Mary Stoltz

Request #21

 My memories of it are pretty vague. The paperback cover featured a red-haired girl in a green dress. I believe it was about a teenager who moved to somewhere very green and mysterious, perhaps with castles…maybe Ireland? And there were always white swans on the lawn. I believe the girl’s name was Phillippa. I got it in a box of my older cousin’s stuff…in the late 1980s, so I believe it was published some time in the mid-eighties. Any help would be appreciated!  Solved by Lost Classics reader Kim Dreams and Memories by Lavinia Harris

Request #20

 I’m piecemeal tracking down the YA romance books I loved reading and rereading in the ’80s and there’s one whose title I can’t remember–it’s really stumping me! It’s about a girl whose family moves from Arizona to Minnesota, and she has a really hard time adapting to the cold and snow. She’s always complaining about how things are so much more perfect back in sunny, warm AZ, which, needless to say, doesn’t go over very well with her new classmates, who basically tell her to GTF away from them if she hates them and their state so much. I think she had a boyfriend back in AZ who she was pining for as well. Ring any bells for anyone? Suggestion: The Year My PArents Ruined My Life by Martha Freeman New Girl by Janet Adele Bloss solved by Lost Classics reader Kristina

Request #19

 I’ve got another anthology that I’ve been trying  to track down- it was from the very late 1980s or very early 1990s and was short stories and excerpts from novels, and I want to say that it had a title like “A Child’s Treasury of Humor”. The two pieces I specifically remember are Shirley Jackson’s short story “Charles” and the chapter from Lake Wobegon Days about the Boy Scouts. It was a thick (600+ pages) oversize hardcover. Anybody remember this one? SOLVED! The Random House Book of Humor for Children solved by Lost Classics Reader daisyporter

Request #17

“I am pretty sure it was a Whitman hardcover about two sisters traveling to somewhere. The older sister had just started driving and maybe they are driving an old Volkswagon? They end up staying in an old house and there was a painting on the one wall they find out later had holes where the eyes were for spying. The cover was purple-ish with possibly the painting on the front. I can’t remember what the mystery was about. There may have been a grandfather in the story too or some type of older relative.” Update: possibly Spirit Town by Suzanne Roberts, maybe combined with plot elements from another book. 

Request #16

 “I’m pretty sure this one’s from the early 2000s. It’s historical fiction set after the Vietnam war. A boy in middle school learns to play chess from a teacher who was a veteran of the war. The boy had a baby sister called Cassie who died, possibly in a car accident? He remembers she had hair like peach fuzz. I can’t remember if the teacher ends up dating his mother or something, maybe that happened? It was one of those quiet, slice-of-life-y novels that I ate up well after I was supposed to be too old for midgrade novels, and I’d like to reread it.”  A Long Way Home by Nancy Price Graff, at last found by the original requestor, Miss Amy!