Author Archives: admin

212G: poor boy is friends with rich girl

Leave a reply

Book written in the 60’s-early 80’s. Illustrations are photos (like stills from a movie) not drawings. Set in England in 1800’s or early 1900’s; poor boy is friends with rich girl. They play together a lot. I think at one point she’s not allowed to play with him. One scene they are on the street and roll a sixpence down a hill which they lose in a drain (or something like that). The two grow up and fall in love. I know there are scenes in her rich house. I believe his father works for hers or he is just a little scamp of some kind. He has blonde hair. They spend much of their days outdoors. That’s all I can remember. I just remember reading this around 1981 and I was 11 years old. It was a chapter book, kind of thick, written for older children, but not quite young adult. I remember their clothing was old fashioned. Please help! I’ve searched since my friend lost it in 1981-82. I would LOVE to find this book! It means so much to me. Thank you!!

212F: Boy with ability to copy other’s skills. (SOLVED)

2 Replies

I read the book in 6th grade (1990-1991.) The book most likely printed mid to late 1980s or early 1990s. Set in modern times in North America/USA. Male lead age 13-15. Junior high or high school student. He finds out one day he can some how summon abilities. Example in the only scene I remember he’s being followed. He confronts his stalker and summons the abilities of a boxer and fights off his stalker. Through out the book he summons skills. Sometimes he can do it other times the power fails. Doesn’t understand how he can do it.

Can anyone help?

212D: Mammals in Wisconsin

1 Reply

Mammals in Wisconsin Children’s book with beautiful full page high gloss pictures and short narratives of common mammals (weasels, fox, deer, bear, etc.) in Wisconsin. Published around 1959-1961. A quote from the book is “When a weasel sets out to go hunting he always asks himself will I eat today or be eaten”? I don’t recall the title, but the book was most likely purchased from a Milwaukee, Wisconsin book store.

212B: Boxed set of 4 nursery rhyme books

2 Replies

When I was growing up ( I was born in 1968) my mother had a set of World Book Encyclopedias and on the same set of shelves she had this boxed set of four : grey with red/maroon lettering . I could be wrong but I recall all four of the books having nursery rhymes/poems e.g. Jack Spratt, Old Mother Hubbard, Itsy bitsy spider, there was one about black birds baked in a pie. There was even one about a purple cow and the last line of it was I’d rather see than be one – and on the top of the page was what you could tell was a color picture of a Holstein cow but they had mad it look purple. The quality of the books were the same as the encyclopedias- hard shell, thick feel of the paper. I loved those books. I have a co-worker who also remembers the same set of books but her mother also did not keep them to her dismay and she and I both have been trying to figure out who published them and could you still find a set. There were tons of poems/ rhymes and I loved them all but the purple cow was my all time favorite. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated .

212A: Angsty Teen Boy runs away to wilderness instead of living with rich parents

3 Replies


Hopefully you can help me find this book. I’ve been searching for it for the better part of 10 years. The book would have had to be written no later than 1999.
I only have vague memories of the book. What I do remember of the plot is this:

Angsty teenaged boy is really smart. His parents are rich alcoholics that don’t really care about him. One day he decides to pack up, leave home, and live in the wilderness. He survives living in the woods for a little while, but does eventually start to have some trouble. He later meets a woman that also lives in the forest and has been for years(?). They quickly become friends, and the boy starts to become attracted to the women. They live together happily for a few weeks/months until winter starts to set in. One day they’re out hunting/foraging when she.. dies.. somehow. I think she slips and falls down a waterfall or creek and breaks her neck/back. The boy, distraught and panicked, buries or cremates her.
Now depressed the boy sets out further into the wilderness in full-on winter. He gets frostbite and I believe he finds shelter at some point. He sets out once again and at some point he passes out in the snow and later wakes up in a hospital with several of his fingers having been amputated.
The story may have been told in the past tense, while the boy spoke to a counsellor in the hospital.

211C: YA mystery series (Solved)

5 Replies

I’m attempting to find two YA novels (may be part of a longer series) featuring best friends Kim (tall, thin, blonde) & Alexa (name may not be exact; small, brunette), 13-15yo, amateur detectives. One book features them at riding camp, investigating twin sisters who may be planning to kill male counselor who impregnated one sister. In one scene, they hike through a cave with stalactites and stalagmites. The other book features a mysterious death at a neighbor’s house where college/20-smtg friends of neighbor’s child(ren) are staying; they are involved in drugs and may have faked friend’s death by drowning him/her in swimming pool. I seem to recall the author had a woman’s name. The last I saw these books was in my secondary school library in the late 1980s/early 1990s. I would guess they were published in the late 1970s or early 1980s. Any help appreciated!

211B: Traveling merchant visits small rural town on top of a hill.

1 Reply

I’m looking for a dark young adult novel, about middle school reading level, published from 2000-2009. All black with fancy white/silver steampunk-style text on the cover. It was about various figures in a small town on top of a hill, specifically a traveler that comes to the small town to show off some sort of technology/machiene. The townspeople live extremely rural lives in some sort of vague time period before machines were commonplace, but the setting is very disconnected from our world.

At some point in the story, a cat is implied to be eaten? I believe some sort of book is integral to the story… the cover of the novel is made to look like the book.

There is some sort of fortune-telling? I think the book vaguely predicts the future of people in the town. Sorry this is incredibly vague, I’m having trouble remembering almost anything about this book.