Category: SOLVED

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 

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

 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

. The book I’m looking for is a YA diary-type novel. I think the main character is named Sarah or Sara. She has an older sister named Deirdre (called Didi). I remember the cover is a girl with brown hair wearing I think a white t-shirt. She is sitting in a purple background. I don’t remember much about the plot except she doesn’t get along with her family and there is a line something like, “You can tell what their expectations were, naming her Deirdre, and me, just plain Sarah.” It was definitely from the early to mid 1970s.  Solved by an Anonymous Lost Classics Reader: Diary of a Frantic Kid Sister by Hila Colman….. there was also a sequel, Nobody has to be a Kid Forever.

 I have been searching for a book of short stories for girls from the mid 1960’s. I am guessing that it is a Scholastic book, as I am sure that I bought it at a junior high school book fair. I remember details of 2 stories in particular. I remember a high school girl who wanted new clothes so she would become more popular; she wanted “shoes that look like ballet slippers…and a string of pearls!” Another story was about a girl whose father said that she may not be a pretty girl, but she was going to be a beautiful woman. Do these sound familiar to anyone? Grateful for any help that you have to offer. Thanks so much!  Sometimes Magic Edited by Hallie Burnett, solved by Lost Classics reader Jennifer! 

. This has driven me nuts for decades – I had a gritty YA realistic fiction teen peril kind of  book from the 70s or 80s in which the main character got to know another young woman in her small town who had a bad reputation for being promiscuous and was thus known by the nickname “Everybody’s Evie” or “Everybody’s Evy” (but I am pretty sure this was not the title of the book, nor am I talking about ME Kerr’s Deliver Us From Evie, which is newer and different). If I recall, this was one of those moralizing types of books, like don’t sleep around or the town will cast you out, but I also seem to remember that it might have been a little more progressive than that and the main character got to know Evie/Evy and learned she hadn’t really done the things that earned her this reputation, but rather was just kind of a rebel nonconformist who didn’t give a crap and was therefore being stigmatized and marginalized unfairly. Still, I have the haunting remembrance that the ending wasn’t so happy. Nobody knows what this book is and I am going nuts, please help! Did I dream it?  Lost Classics reader Miss Amy alerts us that this one was solved over at Goodreads: Everybody’s Evy by Rose Blue

I’m looking for a teen/young adult book that follows a group of girls in Jr. High adventures. Read it in the 80s. The only adventure I clearly remember is a team gymnastics competition where the girls squirt ink on a competitors leotard- that girl and her twin sister had been switching places in their best gymnastics events, so their team always won! (Yes, a huge crime.) Then the ink-stained girl and her twin had to finish the competition with no cheating, and they lost. (Justice prevails.) If anyone can help, I’m desperate to find this one. TY in advance! The Rascals from Haskell’s Gym, by Frank Bonham ID’d by an Anonymous Lost Classics reader!  

Can’t remember title. YA book from late 1970s or early 1980s. Wren and her sister Francesca meet a girl named Anna Ferris. Anna is a budding singer. Anna has a brother, Travis (I think). Anna meets Tony and gets pregnant. Wren desperately tries to find a place to send Anna over the summer for the pregnancy so that Anna doesn’t lose her future. Wren’s mom is dating someone named Mr. Montcrief. Help! I can’t think of the title, I’ve searched the internet and nothing!  Sycamore Year by Mildred Lee identified by Lost Classics reader Susan. 

 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!