Lost Classics of Teen Lit: Name That Book!

I am a retired English teacher who was asked to try to find a book title for one of my son’s friends. They are now in their 30’s and she’s trying to recall a book assigned to them in 5th grade, which would’ve been 1993-94. The teacher — who was pretty conservative — assigned The Westing Game, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and A Wrinkle in Time.

The book in question was a mystery. The copies of the book the kids were given were worn, so the story might be older. For the bright, fifth grade girl who read it the book was an easy read but very engaging. (She was annoyed not to be allowed to read ahead.) The book may have been set between the 1960’s-1980’s, but she’s not sure. One of the main characters was a Black adult male. He befriended a kid and the two of them were linked through the story, but the reader can’t recall if the kid was male or female. There was something about treasure in a cavern and also hidden tunnels or passageways in a house (maybe Underground Railroad?).

Suggestion from an Anonymous Lost Classics reader: Not the right race of the older male figure, but could be Mandie and the Secret Tunnel by Lois Gladys Leppard.

I am also looking for the author of a book called The Room about a bunch of teenagers who live in an apartment building and turn a room in the basement into a hangout. They end up doing drugs and playing an elaborate prank on a teacher they hate.

 I’m looking for a book of short stories. One was about a cat who was really an alien and another was about some kids who made new friends and there was something about a party where they left just in time to avoid being trapped in another world.

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. 

I am looking for a YA / teen classic from the 1970s. It’s about a young Apache girl whose grandfather teaches her how to run long distances by holding a mouthful of water.
That’s all I remember, so I hope someone can help find this book.

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

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

 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.

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!