Category Archives: 1970s

175D: boy, ghost, orchard (solved)

4 Replies

i don’t know the title or author, which is why i need you. this is a YA type mystery or horror (not sure how they categorized things back then) from the late 70s early 80s. I probably got it through scholastic at school (i was in 4th or 5th grade at the time). i’ve searched and searched book covers for years and am hoping you can help.

i don’t remember much, but finding this book means so much because of events surrounding it during that period. dark green cover with a broken gravestone on it, possibly a crow, possibly trees (an orchard or grove) as well. the story itself was a boy gone to live with his grandparents (? or relatives in general?) and befriends a ghost in the walls/closet/something in the house. ends up in the orchard out back. finds the boy’s grave. god that’s not a lot to go on!

Thank you in advance!!

171G: scary short stories book from the 80’s

1 Reply

I remember a bit about a few stories from the book. 1) A blob like thing killing people 2) A small friendly alien that a child is able to see in his house. The creature is surprised the child can see him and makes some adjustments to something so he cant be seen next time. 3) A third was set in the future where a child asks an older person what a book is, and the adult says “words that stay”.
I could be remembering wrong but I think those were all stories from the same book.
The book could have been published in the 70’s or 80’s, I remember getting it from the library sometime in the early 80’s.  I hadn’t finished reading it and my dog destroyed it, pages all over my back yard.
Thanks for any help you can provide!

169C: YA Romance Set in Early 20th Century, Lead Characters Play Romeo & Juliet in School Play (solved)

5 Replies

I remember reading this YA book, which I believe had a sequel, in the mid 1970s.  It took place in the early 20th century in the New York area, somewhere slightly north of New York City, possibly Westchester or Tarrytown.
The book(s) tell the story of the budding romance between the female protagonist and a boy who is a fellow student. At one point, the pair is cast to play Romeo & Juliet in a school production.  Another slightly older female character (either a friend, or a sister), has a crisis (an unexpected pregnancy?) and she drinks a bottle of laudanum in response.

164E: an animal book, an abc book and a seek-and-find book all in one

3 Replies

I am thinking of a book that I checked out from the school library about 100 times in the mid-late 80’s
It was a picture book and each page was fully illustrated with animals. There was one page per animal, and went from A to Z. Some if not all of the animals were exotic. I remember wondering “what the heck is an ibis?”
So the pages went from A to Z. Each 2-page spread would name one animal that starts with that letter. The pages were covered densely from edge to edge with drawings of that animal. There was also one example of the animal illustrated and you had to find the matching illustration on that page, which was quite challenging. So it was an animal book, an abc book and a seek-and-find book.
I remember each page being colored background (maybe different colors for each animal, seems like mostly dark, rich colors like crimson), and the print might have been black only but I am not certain about that. It wasn’t white pages though, I am sure of that. I am almost certain it was a hardcover book too.

 

160I: Old YA sci fi book

2 Replies

\

I’m looking for a YA sci fi book, maybe from the 70s or 80s, about a girl who lives in an orphanage/juvy work camp type place. She has the ability to move thru (time/space/another dimension?). There is a scary, mysterious maintenance man that works at the orphanage who turns out to be a boy shares her same ability, but tried it with his pet dog and somehow they merged beings. She befriends him and tries to help him and ultimately is able to un-merge them, and they have an romantic attraction. There is also an old lady that lives in a mansion near the orphanage who all the orphans go to meet. In the end it turns out the old lady is actually the girl’s grandmother who has been looking for her for years.

 

154F: Kids visit fantasy world with owl mayor (Solved!)

1 Reply

The book I’m trying to find was probably published in the 1970s. It was mostly text, with some black and white line drawings. The storyline involved some kids visiting a fantasy world with an owl for a mayor. For the owl’s birthday, they bake him a cake in the shape of an owl. The owl is horrified and refuses to eat the cake because it looks like him. That’s all I remember, except that it also contained the word “turd” which greatly horrified my mother. It’s possible the book was written in verse, or that this was just one story in a collection, but I don’t remember. I think I had this book when I was about 10, so it was probably written for the tween market. The tone of the book was playful and irreverent.

 

153E: Looking for 70s environmentalist novel

Leave a reply

I am trying to find a book I started to read in middle school, but it is hard for me to remember all of the details because I didn’t finish reading it. It was a novel, I think from the 70s, with a strong environmentalist message, “save the trees” etc. It was about high school students (?), and had intermittent poems throughout the text, including one that went something like “acid rain, like a single tear drop, rolls down the flower”.
It appeared old and worn to me when I was in middle school in 1998, a small hardcover book with blue binding. I think the latest date of publication would be 1980, as it was about environmentalism and the messages were similar to the messages of the 1970s. Sorry I don’t have more details, but let me know if this jogs anyone’s memory.

Thank you!