Author Archives: admin

360H: Young Adult Book About Teenager who plays pool and lives in an abandoned factory/hanger (Solved!)

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The book is relatively old (I read part of it around 2003 but it was published way before). The book was a young adult book that involved crime and a runaway that lived with two adults in what is either an abandoned factory or airplane hangar. The cover of the book I believe featured someone playing pool on it. The title might have been Me & (I can’t remember the rest). It was recommended to people that liked the Rag and Bone Shop and it was similar to the Westing Game. One thing I do remember clearly is that in the introduction the main character talks about how his dad can tell who has committed a crime or who has been to jail by just looking at them.

360G: Rivalry Turns Into Romance

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The book I am searching for is a YA contemporary novel wherein the heroine has an ongoing academic rivalship with a male classmate, which eventually turns into something more even though she already has a boyfriend. I think the book was published in the range of 2017-now. The book cover is black, white, pink, and orange with illustrated faces on it, in a style that in my head is reminiscent of the cover of All Your Twisted Secrets by Diana Urban.

360F: Fantasy Novel With Very Careful Women

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This is for a fantasy novel. I had it in 96 for sure, but it was older than that. The only thing I remember is the cover art. A group of people around a campfire, surprised by the sudden appearance of someone in a dark cloak, I think holding a staff. He may have been standing in the fire.

The only thing I remember from the beginning of the book is that one of the people in the adventuring party was complaining that women would not sleep with outsiders, unless they had a magic amulet or bracer that worked like birth control. These came in varying qualities. The narrating character could only afford a cheap one that expired, but a fellow party member had an expensive one that didn’t expire.

360C: A perfect day at the shore

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I’m looking for an old children’s book that my mom used to read to me but I can’t remember the title. It was about a mother and a young daughter who spent the day together getting ice cream and going to the beach. The beach was a New England looking type of beach, the illustrations were pastel in nature, maybe watercolors. I feel like it was called something like The Perfect Day or A Day at the Shore but those titles aren’t turning up results. I would have read it in the 80s and early 90s and it was not brand new then. It is not Beach Day, Day at the Seashore or The Seashore Book

360B: Girl Solves Mystery Using Library Newsreels

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I hope I’m not blending info from several books, but here goes:

I read the Braille version of this book—probably about 200 pages in print—in the early 1970’s. I don’t remember the title, and am on the hunt for books I read as a young person—to re-visit them through older eyes. The protagonist may have been named Kathy Hughes or had a friend by that name. She solves a mystery using library newsreels. There may have been a male co-sleuth. Finally, the book may have featured an elderly  character in a wheelchair, Mrs. Smallett. Alas, that is all I can remember!

359Z: Christmas activity book

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This is a book my family and I have tried quite a lot to find, but with no luck. It had fallen apart when I was a kid and I still had pages but no cover or publishing information. What I remember about it:
-It was all illustrated and most pages didn’t have color. It was kind of a taupe color, not black and white drawings.
-It was a kind of activity book, but there were also recipes and information about Christmas traditions.
-It was probably from the 1980s, maybe 1970s.
-The characters in the book were a family that all had Christmas names (Noel, Holly, etc). There was a son, daughter, baby, parents, and maybe a grandma and grandpa. Their last name might have been Kringle, but I’m less sure about that.
-I can remember the pictures pretty vividly, but have no idea what the cover looked like or what it was called.
I think that’s all I’ve got. Thank you for any help you can provide!

359X: Drawings Lead to Time Travel to the Bubonic Plague

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Seeking children's/YA book about a girl who time travels/visits memories of a past life? - back to the era of the Black Death/bubonic plague - whenever she starts to draw in different places around town. When she returns to the present, her drawing is finished. Almost certainly published before 2000. Thanks!