Category Archives: YA (grades 7-9)

368D: YA Book from the early 90s about a boy who spends a summer in California

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This was a pretty small paperback, sold at Scholastic book fairs in the early 90s. It was meant for late elementary school to early middle school readers. It’s fiction, and I believe it might have been in the format of a diary kept by the main character. Pretty sure the cover had a mountain lion on it.

It was about a boy from Michigan or some other Midwestern state who for some reason had to go to California for a summer (maybe he was in some trouble at school or his parents were getting divorced, don’t remember). I remember a scene with a rattlesnake, where someone ends up chopping its head off with a garden hoe.

The ending involved him getting lost in a canyon and stalked by a mountain lion. He was about to try fighting it with a rock when search and rescue showed up to help him.

368A: Fighting animals and villains on a ranch

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I’m looking for a YA or MG book about a teen boy who lives on a ranch (New Mexico? west Texas?), his cousin Horace comes to visit for summer which he thinks will ruin his summer but Horace turns out to be a good guy who can ride and shoot and they become good friends.  There is a mountain lion or cougar that kills his dad’s prize bull Red Toro so they go out to find the cougar, Horace shoots it with a great shot.  Along the way there are some villains who are trying to jump a gold claim, Horace sprains his ankle, has to be hauled out by the boy on an Indian trapezoid carry deal, they fool the bad guys into fording the river where there is quick sand and all ends well.  Can’t remember title.  Book had line drawings, and I think the cover was edged in burnt orange or brown. 

367V: Kids survive by foraging on beach

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I was born in 1987 so most likely this book was read to me around 1992 or 1993. It was a paper back, chapter book. It did not have pictures. I would guess it was a YA novel. There were kids, possibly sisters, in the story who have to fend for themselves while living without grown ups in a beach house. To survive they collect snails or cockles from the beach and learn how to cook them. It might be that they ran away from home or were abandoned by the adults. I don’t recall the rest of the context. There may have been an old telephone in the house which they were trying to fix to get in touch with someone. It was a little bit scary to me but mostly exciting. The book was super engaging to me – I loved books about wilderness survival and foraging for food, such as My Side of the Mountain. I loved the idea that they had to live off the land around them and the ocean.

367S: Falling for the Prince of Fae

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Contested Fae Romance YA fantasy novel I read in library between 1994 and 2000. Protagonist girl falls for cold and intriguing guy (maybe named Percival? Parsifal?), finds out he’s the prince of Fae and his mother does not consent to their relationship. At some point mortal protagonist saves him or the mother AND him from iron-related trap, thus earning her respect. Cover had small pointy leaves on left side.

367R: The Odd Fae Child

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I read this book about 20+ years ago when I was Junior High in the US. It was about this guy who fell in love with a woman from a fae race I believe? I honestly don’t remember that much about it except I think the cover had some art but was green in binding. They had some sort of huge struggle with a type of villain and they ended up together and pregnant. He thought it would be a normal 9 month pregnant like for humans and her race actually had a 3 year gestation. Their baby was a girl who was very different and inquisitive and wasn’t a normal human child. That’s essentially all I remember. If you could help me find it, I would appreciate it!

366G: Uncle Flees Disaster, Leaves Orphaned Children

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I’m looking for the title of a dystopian middle grade or YA book I read in the late 1970s or early 1980s. An orphaned girl (tween or early teens) and her younger brother live with their aunt and uncle in an apartment building in a big city. (Maybe in the UK? I have a vague feeling that some things didn’t seem familiar to this midwestern suburban kid.) The uncle is mean and doesn’t like having them there. There’s a disaster of some sort and the uncle flees with his family, leaving the niece and nephew to fend for themselves. There’s no power or water and when they run low on food they leave the apartment. The girl fills a canteen or bottle with water from the toilet tank, saying she was grateful that at least her uncle wouldn’t let her aunt use the cleaning pucks that turn the toilet water blue. Later there’s some sort of charismatic leader and evil government. I don’t even remember if it was a particularly good book. It just occurs to me sometimes and I’d like to remember the rest of the story.

365X: YA Book About a Young Man Owning 100 Things (Solved!)

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Book was available for sale between at least  2000-2005- Most likely originally purchased it from the Scholastic Book Fair- Most likely (YA?) fiction- Front cover art either had a desktop computer in it or was technologically related- Protagonist was a male (high school?) student- Protagonist limited his number of possessions to 100 things or so- Some pages broke up the text with a picture of one of his possessions captioned with its number and description- I think one of them was a Buddha statue- He was most likely living with one parent, the other was deceased or unavailable- He was pursuing a woman (named Beth?)- I think he went with her to an outdoor music festival- Their relationship most likely ended poorly.

365W: 1970s(?) book about kid spies

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I am looking for a book that is a children/tween/teen book from the 60’s or 70’s (I borrowed it from the Bookmobile in the very early 80’s) about 3 or 4 teenagers who fly a glider and get involved in a spy plot where an organization (maybe called Chaos or similar acronym) with a plan to put a memory drug into the water supply. Originally they are set astray by misinformation that it is going into the milk supply. I think one boy is super athletic and one is the brainy one. There is one part where they fly the glider over a compound and later break in. It is guarded by a lion that has been fed the drug and doesn’t attack them but is reliving a memory. It turns out the parents of one of the kids are actually spies and assist them in the end.

365Q: Medieval era based, “YA” 80s(?) Short romance

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I have a book I read in 6th grade, which was around 1992. The book itself could have been older, like 1980s. It was a definite Young Adult book even if that didn’t have the description at that time. It was about a Lady who was recently widowed, very young, who lived in a crumbling Tower (Castle). She may have had one servant. She had a Rose garden which I think was a big part of the book. A criminal possibly a thief or murderer arrives at the castle one day and stays essentially taking her hostage. I remember it was a romance. It was a really short story in a very thin book, it reminded me very strongly of “A Door in the Wall” just in terms of time. And may have been plague mentions I can’t remember. It also reminded me of Secret Garden, just because the Rose garden seemed to play a huge part in the story.

365N: Teen or young adult book about a boy runner in a fictional foreign country

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I recorded this book for our local Library several years ago, but it seems to have disappeared.  The main character is a teenage boy.  He lives with his father who publishes an underground newspaper articles about life in this country and sends them out to his daughter who is a college student in “Freelandia” (I think that is the name assigned to what is the USA.)  In the country where the boy lives, one route to escaping poverty is success as a runner, but first he needs shoes good enough to train.  There is a group of runners who use a training route preparing for competition, and he is singled out from this group by an older man, apparently one who is a member of some sort of crime syndicate, who will give him money for the shoes in advance, but basically own his soul going forward. 

The boy wants to win the race in order to escape the country, which sounds a lot like Cuba or Venezuela.  The plot involves danger, maybe murder of his family, danger to his sister, and finally he finds help from a librarian.