Early- to mid-1970’s: A boy builds robots in a non-urban area. A lightning strike makes them autonomous. At the end of the book, he tells them to “stop rowing for a minute. ” They take the instruction literally and, 60 seconds later, row away, never to be seen again. IIRC the book had some insignia on its paperback cover saying that it had won some sort of literary award.
A story about a teen or pre-teen girl from who lives in purdah (in India, I believe) who is being prepared for marriage. She gets pierced (ears and nose I think) and undergoes other ceremonies that are apparently traditional for a girl her age. She belongs to a well-off family, and her father has been indulgent and somewhat spoiled her up to this point, but now a young man has been selected for her, and she is expected to assume adult responsibilities and accept this inevitable fate maturely. I think an older female relative (aunt, or grandmother) attempts to soothe her anxieties by breaking tradition and allowing her to meet the young man–chaperoned, of course–before the ceremony. I seem to recall the book is rather open-ended, leaving the reader with a slightly optimistic feeling that the main character may face a happy future with her prospective spouse, despite her reluctance for the whole thing. I have a vague feeling that there were some tiger cubs were involved somehow in the story (maybe one of the outrageous gifts her father had given her?) I can’t remember the title, but I think it had the word “Time” in it, and the girl’s name, which for some reason nags at me as having started with the letter “Y”.
This was a series of books that I read between 1975 and 1981 (I think). Each book featured 20 or so stories (2-6 pages long) of a super sleuth who solved a mystery, that invited you to figure out how he solved it. Answers were in the back of the book. The lead detective was a “Dr.” and he had a sidekick who narrated, and were set in England.
Thank You!
A girl lives in an old house. Her mother is a servant there. The old nursery closet has measurements for growth from the children who used to live there. The girls can travel back in time to play with the children. She gets injured and stops growing in the past time. She also solves a mystery of a lost and valuable book hidden in a tree trunk.
I’m looking for a older child/young adult book. It is set in earlier times, though I can’t recall for certain if it was as far back as Victorian. A young girl goes to live with an older, severe relative. She has a hard life but is befriended by a small grey kitten and a mysterious girl who is a ghost. The ghost gives the girl clues to the cause of her unrest The girl refers to the kitten as “gray one” or “little gray one”.
I have been searching for this book for so long with no luck. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the title.
I got it when I was in elementary school in the 1970’s. It was probably published early to mid 70’s. I got it through one of the school’s reading program catalogs, so it may be a Scholastic book or another company like that. My best friend and several other students also purchased it. It was a Halloween book. It was about school students who have a young, pretty new teacher come to their school. Her name was Miss – something. Maybe Miss Grey. (I don’t trust my memory that far though.) The students think there is something odd about her. She wears a big, wide-brimmed hat. Of course, she’s suspected of being a witch.
The book was a thin paperback. The illustrations were pencil drawings in black and white. That’s about all I’ve got on it. It was such an unusual story and I’ve never seen the book again. Wish I knew where my copy got off to. Probably gave it away when I felt I was too old for children’s stories… geez…
When I search online, the later 80’s series about “Miss Nelson” pops up, but that is not it.
Thank you for your time!
This is a book written in the 60’s about a group of boys who have a rocket club which meets on the farm of an old army general.
They design various rockets, and at one point there is an accident because two of the boys decide to include dangerous design changes. I think they eventually get a trip to see a launch in Florida. This is NOT Hickman’s “Rocket Boys” or “October Sky”. It is also not “Countdown to Zero”.
I used to get books in the mail — “Me and the Terrible Two,” “Alvin’s Secret Code” — and one of them was a book about a boy who watched the moon landing all summer while some family drama was also going on. The book had a low-key melancholy tone. I read it in 1974 or 75, when I was in 2nd or 3rd grade. I wish I could remember more about it, but I’m stumped!
Juvenile fiction from late 1960s or early 1970s with color illustrations of a teen boy and his father/uncle and their adventures scuba diving. I worked in the school library when I was 13-14 and was fascinated by this book, which piqued my interest in oceanography. I’ve searched on and off for many years. It’s not Sea Hunt and it’s not a Hardy Boys book. Any help locating a copy of this book would be much appreciated.
The book that I’m looking for was written sometime between the 1940’s and 1960’s (or so). It was about a young woman who moved to live with her glamorous aunt in London. Her aunt gave her a Pekingese puppy that she named “Peke Ah Boo”. There was some kind of mystery having to do with the house next door and possibly a young man who turned out to be a spy? It may have been a YA book – the copy that I had was hardcover in robin’s blue but there may have been a dust jacket at some point since I don’t remember any identifying marks on the cover.
Any help would be appreciated greatly, it’s driving me crazy!