Category Archives: Series

347C: Book series about a magic school for teens

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The first book has a scene where the student almost dies due to a werewolf-like creature and is saved and recruited to a magic school. The school has a sanctuary for animals. The cooks at the school are Bob the troll and a hag who tries to eat the students on occasion. The main character learns how to the fight the werewolf-like creatures. The students play soccer on a magic field that changes (hills are added to the field during play). In one scene, the main character is in an art gallery and is almost killed, and the school is under attack in the last book of the series

345Z: Teen paperback series about pioneer girl

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I read this probably 30+ years ago. It was a short series—3 or 4 books–normal sized paperbacks, not very thick, in the teen section of the library. I believe they were shelved in the last part of the alphabet, so the author’s last name will begin with something further along than M. I have a feeling that the name Sherwood was part of the author’s name, but I think it was the first name, not the last one, and I could be totally imagining that detail.

The one I remember best follows a early teen or tween girl who has been growing up as a tomboy in the West. Her mother is distressed at the rough behavior the girl has picked up from playing with her brothers and not being exposed to the more refined aspects of life. The girl is sent back east to spend an extended amount of time with relatives who are going to teach her to be “a lady”. I’m pretty sure she gets put into corsets, and there is a scene in which what sounds like some sort of torture device is used to “cure” her pigeon-toed gait. Her schooling appears to be focused on things like posture, and dancing and etiquette, and have almost no academic content. The girl is miserable and although I don’t remember how/why, she returns to her family in the west after a few months, instead of a few years as had been originally planned and there is a scene where as part of a dare from her brothers she walks the ridgepole of one of their buildings, and afterwards declares that all that fuss about posture and grace, and the “ladylike” way to walk was good for something since she won the dare.

I don’t remember if the other books in the series are about the same characters, or if they are about different people but set in the same time period/location.

344X: Secret Pointe Shoes

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I had a flash of a memory of a childhood book.  I have googled and googled but can’t find it, and it is driving me crazy!!!  So here goes the parts I remember:

It was a book about girls, not sure how many, that take ballet classes at a studio which I think was located in a mall or a strip mall.  Rival studio that is fancier is a possibility but more vague memory of that so could be wrong.  One of the girls sees a pair of pointe shoes in the store that are an unusual color, maybe purple?  And she decides she wants to get them and learn how to use them, but she does it in secret because her ballet teacher says she is not at all ready to start with pointe.  There is something that makes her feel like she is less than the other girls and that leads her to use the pointe shoes in secret.  I think she even ruins her feet and ballet progress in the process.  I also want to say that it is a part of a series, either a ballet series or as a ballet focused book in a larger series.  Also very good chance it was a book fair book , I got a lot of books that way.

344W: Young Adults in Frontier America

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I am searching for a young adult adventure series I read in the 70's, although I think the series was several decades old at the time. It was based on the adventures of young adults on the frontier of colonial, American Revolution and Post American Revolution America. Debby Boone was the main character of one book, and she leaves the message "D Boone cilled a bar" carved into a tree after dispatching a bear. Another book had the heir to the French throne being brought up in a cabin in the remote mountains of frontier America. The title of the series was something like "The Young Rifles" or the "Young Frontiersmen". I've never run across the series, but would love to find them.

344M: Historical Women Biographies For Kids

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During the 1968-69 school year, when I was in fourth grade, I read a series of biographies on famous historical women from my school library. The ones I remember are Harriet Tubman, Joan of Arc, Florence Nightingale, and Clara Barton, but I think there were others as well. I believe they were hardcover in the style of Nancy Drew books, but possibly a different size. I’ve found many books about these women on Ebay from that time frame, but none that “match” as parts of a series. Does anyone recognize this book series? Thank you for any assistance.

344D: Time Traveling Children Kidnap Girl Leaving London On Train (Solved!)

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Hi! I hope you can help me because this is driving me batty LOL. I believe it was a book or series of children’s books. There was some sort of isolated world outside time, but it was starting to show cracks and it was feared their world was ending. Two children believed a girl on a train being sent away from London during the war was responsible, so they traveled in time and kidnapped her . Ultimately, they were convinced she was innocent. Then, they had to hide her as a visiting cousin; there was a lot of advanced technology, like a money chip and a pen that had special abilities when she went to school with them. The place traded with other time eras; there was a river around it that played into the plot. Ultimately, I believe an uncle and his daughter were the bad guys. There was a battle; the children were locked up in some sort of phasing clock tower. There was a powerful, godlike couple who ultimately woke up/remembered their real selves and put everything to rights. I believe the girl’s family was saved and allowed to come live with her there. That’s all I can remember. Thanks very much!

344B: Rural family of sisters YA series

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This is so vague…
I remember reading a series of young adult novels in the early 90s, though I feel the books had been around for awhile. From what I remember the books were about a rural family (I think set somewhere between the 1920s and 1940s… but not sure) I believe each novel in the series was from the perspective of a different sister each time. The only piece of plot I remember was about them fermenting something too long and it became alcohol instead of vinegar.
Thank you for your help!

342Z: Science Fiction Banks Hacked

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-science fiction, young adult

-main character was a male

-someone had made some kind of system where everyone had their own personal code - could be a bank password, savings code, etc. - but it was extremely private and considered unhackable. I think it was based on polynomials or factorials

-The conflict is that someone figures out how to hack everyone’s password, data is exposed

-main character has some kind of relationship to either the person that created the code or the person that hacked it. I think there’s a rivalry between the main character and another male

-there’s a really big twist in the middle of the book!

-might turn into a heist book? but also maybe not

-I *think* the original hardcover is blue/green, has overlayed code in the background, one modern-looking symbol. Possibly a key

-read in 2013/2014, and I had at least 2 books in the series out at the time, I’m only describing the first one. I was in 8th grade - 12 or 13 at the time. The book was age-appropriate