Category Archives: 1990s-

359S: Spoiled Girl Takes Out Frustrations on Poor Girl Nicknamed “Safety Pins”

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I am trying to find the title and/or author of a paperback book bought at a book fair from the late 80s early 90s.

Here is what I remember of the book:
It is about a girl named Patty or Patti whose parents were just divorced. She is living with her mother and because of the divorce, money is tight and her mom cannot afford a lot of basic things for the girl. The girl wears old clothes/an old bathing suit that is falling apart and gets teased by other girls who call her “Safety Pins” because she wears a bathing suit or clothes held up with safety pins. She volunteers or goes to some stables to help take care of horses, and cares for them, but cannot afford to ride them. There is another girl there named Stacey or Stacy who is rich, spoiled, and mean to Patty, and also treats her own horse badly. Stacey throws a tantrum because her horse doesn’t get a fancy twisted bit for her bridle, but a plain one, and screams at Patty for this oversight. I believe (this may not be correct) that Patty earns her lessons to ride a horse because she works hard at the stables and takes good care of the horses there.
The other thing I remember about this short paperback is that it had very simple black and white line drawings in it–maybe one in every other chapter or so.
It was written for kids in elementary school, I believe.

359O: Teen Romance on Spring Break Cruise

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This is an 80s, possibly early 90s, teen romance. A girl goes on a spring break cruise with her grandma. She has a crush on one of the ship’s workers. And also meets another passenger that is the “funny” boy. The ship’s worker leads her on a bit. One funny part is; she takes way too many tanning pills and turns orange trying to impress him. She ends up with the funny boy in the end. I thought his name was possibly Jace or something similar.

359L: Secret Twin With Gloves On Hands

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I have been trying to remember this book I read as a teen in the 90s for years now and it’s starting to drive me crazy.

All I can remember of the plot is that there was a guy and he had been dating the same girl basically his whole life. A new girl comes to town and somehow they end up together. I believe they were in high school or just graduating from high school. Then at some point it is discovered that the new girl has a secret twin and the secret twin tries to kill someone, I can’t remember who. The secret twin always wore gloves on her hands because there was something wrong with them, I believe they were burned but I’m not positive.
Again I know it isn’t much to go on. For some reason the movie Swim Fan always triggers me to try to find this book.

359J: Private Investigator Has Bad Luck With Pulp Fiction Publisher

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Looking for metafictional short story that’s an homage to classic noir (probably published in the last 10 years or so) in which a PI is hired by a pulp fiction publisher to write stories. I think the PI only deals with a woman (secretary?) at first, they pay him a lot of money for his writing, and then maybe he eventually meets the publisher and there’s a twist ending that goes poorly for the PI. The tone was winkingly hardboiled (first-person narrator like classic PI stories). I have exhausted every possible Google keyword variation I can think of, and am just hoping someone in your network may have read this! I seem to think it was in a short story collection with different authors doing takes on mystery stories (similar to an anthology called Tiny Crimes), but could be wrong about that.

359F: Early 90’s Humorous Horror Children’s Book

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I imagine this will be one of the more difficult ones for you simply due to my lack of information. This was a childhood book of mine that had to have been published in the late 80’s-early 90’s.  It was a series of 10-12 short stories accompanied by cartoon-ish illustrations focused around a punk kid getting into all sorts of spooky and weird situations.   Unfortunately, at the time I couldn’t read, so all I have are memories of the illustrations and some themes of one or two of the stories. The illustration of the kid was the early 90’s typical baggy jeans, backwards ball cap, long (I think) blonde hair. The cover of the book was of this kid spray painting some graffiti on a brick wall. I think whatever he was spray painting was the title of the book.
A few of the memories I have of the stories include one where the kid gets sucked down a drain and another where the kid has no bones. I’m pretty sure there were a few stories where he encounters monsters as well.
Thanks for your help! My brother and I have spent years trying to find this book!

359D: Fiction, long-lost sisters with celebrity dad, Ireland/USA

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This is a contemporary realistic fiction book. A celebrity man dies and is on the news, and somehow his daughter in the USA finds out he has another daughter in Ireland, or vice versa. The sisters meet. The Irish sister has a cheating husband who eventually seduces the American sister. The American sister later has a summer fling with a 17-year old, the ex-boyfriend of her niece (or something like that). I read it in 2010 and am guessing it was less than 10 years old at the time. The book is light green (or at least, the version I read was). I have a picture of me reading it, but when zoomed in it is way too grainy to decipher any info at all.

359B: Ghost Themed Activity Book (Maybe Disney?)

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There’s a book that I got some time around 1993. It’s a light-hearted ghost themed activity/picture book. One important detail is that there were hidden messages in the book that one could read via the included red decoder that you’d hold up to your eye. It was essentially a red translucent film.
The book was mostly illustrations, maybe with some jokes and mazes thrown in.
The book MAY be a Disney publication as I associate it with Disney. But, as my brother pointed out, that might be because I had the book with me while we were on our trip to Disney in the early 90s. Still, it’s also possible that we got the book while at Disney World.

359A: 90’s Satanic Panic Teen Romance

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This was most likely purchased from a Scholastic Book Fair in the mid to late 90s. I don’t remember the title but I think the cover was dark blue with an image on the front but I can’t remember what of. Something vague like two shadows or a book with a pentagram on it. It is a short book. Probably around 150 pages. Could be Middle Grade or Young Adult.
Details I’m pretty sure of: The story was about a teen girl who moves to a new town and gets a crush on a dark, mysterious guy. He brings her into a group of friends that seem cool and goth but end up being a satanic cult that sacrifices a cat in a dark cave. She is eventually saved by a love interest.
Details I’m unsure of: Vaguely supernatural elements as in things happen that seem magical but may not be. I think there is a scene where she escapes through the basement of a restaurant. Towards the end we learn that she moved to this town because her parents died and the parent’s dying was orchestrated by the cult. Maybe the leader of the cult is revealed to be The Devil. Maybe because we see flames in his eyes or some other devilish detail. There might be drugs involved. There might be an element where the protagonist thinks people have been killed but then they are found alive.
Thank you for the help! This has been bothering me for YEARS.

358Y: Stuff That Makes Kids Cranky

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Looking for a fairly recent children’s book. It is an oversized, paperback, picture book with some text. It is probably about 10-20 pages long. I read this to my daughter when she was young, probably around 2009-2012. It may have been published earlier. I recall the cover being yellowy-orange. It has very vibrant full-color illustrations that cover the entire pages. It’s a book about things you don’t like or want to do as a kid and being cranky/grumpy. I remember a few of the illustrations and words. There is reference to having to “pick up your room” and there is an illustration that show a boy picking up a room in his hand. There is reference to mom buying grown-up cereal with ingredients like sticks and sawdust instead of kid cereal. There is another illustration with a very long chore list rolled out like a scroll. There are also references to brother and grandma. It might be a scholastic book. That’s all I remember.

358X: Dystopian YA novel read around 2004 (not Brave New World)

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The book focuses on multiple points of view from different characters, but one character that stuck out specifically was a “drone” or something like that and he wasn’t supposed to have feelings but eventually does and becomes very depressed at the life he leads and the world he lives in and *trigger warning* commits suicide. I distinctly remember a quote by the “drone” and he broke a bottle or something and “digs and digs into his wrist until he dies”. Morbid but a distinct memory. This quote is the last part of the chapter if that helps at all? It was a chapter book and may have had a blue cover but I can’t totally remember.