Looking for a book I read as a teen in the late 90s most likely. Probably published between 80s-99. The cover was a picture of a teenage girl.. dressed kinda funky in converses(?) and a plaid skirt(I think!). So it’s a lighthearted YA romance… the main character is MacKenzie(?) think.. and her best friend is Devon. She is in love with her neighbor… he only sees her as a close friend bc he’s a little older. So she sets out to make him fall in love with her by trying to be like any girl he’s currently seeing.. she gets into a lot of awkward moments. I remember random pieces like she buys a sweater dress and uses socks for bust enhancement.. which fall out when she is with him. Her friend always complains about her thighs. They were both only children and their families are really close. Please help.. searched for ages and no luck. Thanks!
Request #71
Sometime in the ’80s, I picked up a book that I am almost certain was a Silhouette Romance novel. But the cover touted that it was part of a “new line” of books that were more “mature” (i.e., more graphic). The characters were definitely post-high school age. All I remember about the plot is that a girl goes to Florida to stay with an older relative (grandmother?) in a brand new development that is still under construction. She meets a handsome young guy, maybe at the pool, and he turns out to be a carpenter working on the development’s construction. She can’t invite him home for some reason so they meet up at night in a gazebo. Their encounters are pretty steamy! The only other detail I remember was artificial orange trees near the gazebo, which seemed an odd, tacky touch for Florida.
Request #70
Cover -features a blond boy talking to a girl who’s irritated…she has on an early 80’s ruffley blouse and he has on a striped polo type shirt with a collar. She’s listening to the boy talk and is annoyed. Plot: she (maybe her name is Tracy?) is going to be in a speech or drama class taught by a charismatic, well-known teacher and Tracy gets into the class and the popular kids are in there. The blond boy on the cover is Wylie and I think his girlfriend is Andrea…So Tracy gets paired up with Wylie and there’s a love triangle and I think Tracy has a makeover and becomes more attractive? She and Wylie wind up together. They have to come up with skits for the class and they bond over the skits?
Request #69
I’m looking for a book that I checked out of the junior high school library in the mid-70’s. It looked new. I can’t remember the cover. I remember a scene where a teenage boy, who was the main character, and a teenage girl were running through a castle. The girl had a Scottish accent and she was in love with him. She died, maybe from falling off a ledge. He felt guilty because she had died trying to help him and he hadn’t returned her romantic feelings. He had just considered her to be a friend. I think that he was involved in some political intrigue. He may have come from a different time and place. Please help!
Request #68
I was born in 1958 and I remember a book that I read over and over when I was a young teen. I was wondering if you could help me find it.
It was about a girl, I think her name was Amanda, (because I liked the character so much, I always liked that name after). She goes to visit her fiance’s family for the first time, and they live in a big house on the Hudson River. I keep thinking the title is “Anead on the Hudson,” or something similar.
I would love to find that book again. If you know of the book, it think you do, I would really appreciate any help in finding it!
Request #67
There were two stories I read right around 1980, books I checked out from my library, and I’ve never been able to find them in recent years. One or both of these stories may have been in a collection of stories, rather than a full kids’ or YA novel.One was a story about a boy whose family had moved into a house that had a big scary tree in the backyard. Each night the boy saw that the tree’s shadow crept closer and closer to his bedroom window. Finally in the end there was some conflict re a witch, and they chopped the tree down and filled the hole where the stump was with concrete.The other story was about a boy who loved next door to an old man, but it turned out the man was a vampire, and he trapped the boy in his basement, where there were coffins filled with dirt, I think. Suggestion: Apt Pupil By STephen King- the neighbor in question was an escaped Nazi war criminal, not a vampire, but the rest of it sounds close! Another suggestion: Prisoner of Vampires by Nancy Garden
Request #66
The book is about the blitz in London. A boy and a girl meet in the underground tunnels as they take shelter from the bombings during WW2. I think fire is in the title. Suggestion: Fireweed by Jill Paton Walsh
Request #65
I just discovered your website and thought I’d inquire about a book from the ’70’s that has eluded me for many years. It is in the supernatural/mystery pre-teen catagory. The main character is a girl named Dorcas who has a special power that is triggered by her spinning top. She is able to predict things that will happen in the future. There is a gentleman sympathetic to her circumstances ( I believe she is an orphan ) who gives her a scarf (red?) at one point. The plot involves a nefarious character who, she discovers, is not the upstanding person he appears to be. Near the end, he traps her in a cave where he tells her she has made her own grave, now she can die in it. Naturally, she is rescued by the kindly fellow who gave her the scarf. I thought the title was “The Spinning Top” and that the authors last name started with an “S”, but I have had absolutely no luck in tracking this book down. It was a favorite from my childhood, one I checked out many times from the library. I would appreciate any help in locating this book. The Humming Top by Dorothy Spicer solved by Lost Classics reader Laura and available through Open Library.
Request #64
I probably read this book in the early 80s and I think it was new. A teen girl living near Gardiner, MT is the main character. Her family has horses, maybe a ranch. Her 16th birthday is coming up, and her older sister Althea (I think) disappeared when she was 16. The main character’s father is suddenly encouraging her relationship with a boy. Her mother is kind of upset about that, because she knows why he’s encouraging it.Turns out that the women in the family are given a choice at 16: to go on with a normal life or join some kind of magical society living deep in the forest. I’ve googled everything I can think of and can’t find this book! Suggestion: Becoming Rosemary by Frances Wood
Request #63
I remember reading a book in the 70’s. Young girl on a solo adventure through rugged terrain (maybe mountains). At one point in the story she becomes very ill with diphtheria and is helped by a stranger who nurses her through the illness, and somehow even uses a straw like instrument to remove the cob webby coating from the back of the girl’s throat. That’s about all I remember. Any thoughts? Suggestion: Merlin’s Keep by Madeline Brent