I’m looking for a book I read as a kid in the 90s – a family of 4 goes RV camping in the forest, and a flash flood kills the parents. The siblings (a brother and sister) are forced to fight for survival and escape the woods.
For the life of me I cannot remember the title of the book or the author. It was from the late 80’s or early 90s and was a mystery with teenaged characters. There was a girl sent to spend the summer with her aunt and a selfish cousin. I think a few years pass after the cousin’s death and there is a reunion and all of these odd things start happening. It was on a lake and had a French name like Fond du Lac or Chance du Lac. It might have been on the Wisconsin/Canada border. There was a romance element to it and the heroine was meant to feel like she could trust no one.
As I remember this trilogy it starts shortly before the French and Indian War and follows the generations of the family through the war of 1812. I think the main character in the first book is named Adam. The family owns a farm. A key scene I remember is when someone is dying of a fever and their family member takes pity on them and gives them water to comfort them even though it is strictly against the doctor’s orders– the medical practice being so wrong really made an impression on me. I took these three books out of the Park Ridge, IL public library when I was in junior high and read them several times. I think they were written in the early sixties but it could be earlier. There are a lot of descriptions of colonial life and the generational tensions about fighting in wars. They were longer and more advanced reading than Johnny Tremain.
I read this book late 90’s / early 2000’s (1998-2002), but the book could have been written any time in the 90’s. I know it was a mystery book aimed at 10-15 year olds, the main character was a boy who was about 13. (there may have been a female character too) The boy explores / investigates this abandoned gothic mansion, coming across clues as he does so. One of the clues is the word “Boss Stone” which eventually he realizes is the architecture term (“knob or protrusion of stone or wood”). He realizes that there is a “boss stone” located on the ceiling in the main room of the mansion, and once he gets access to it there is something hidden behind it. The only other part i remember is that the building is haunted / guarded by this cloaked figure that has a tentacle.
A teen series of short novels/stories about rebuilding cars, girls, and all things teen. They were published and stocked in public school libraries late 50s early 60s.
Two people ride a train into a place where there is some disease that makes everyone fall asleep. They tell each other jokes to stay awake. It was a story in a science fiction anthology for young adults. I read it in the mid 1980s in a school library, but it was an old book even then.
This was not a children’s book; more of a youth read. I read it in the late 1950’s or early 60’s. It involves two boys sailing, or learning to sail. One chapter was titled Never Swim From a D___ B___. The boys learn through experience that it is a very bad idea to swim from a drifting boat.
The book that I am trying to find was purchased via scholastic books (or similar) in the 1978-1979
school year. Probably Spring ’79. It was young adult fiction and either the back cover or the description said “Rites of Passage” (then something about learning to drive,graduating,etc.)
The book began with the heroine and her family cleaning out a beloved family cabin or cottage. Her grandmother had just died and she was having trouble dealing with it. A female cousin shows up and they don’t really like each other. Later in the book they become close.The cousin has become cool by sewing shift dresses for classmates. The dresses are unique because she added a pop art twist to
each dress. The cousin would appliqué a hamburger up by a shoulder or a little snake at the waist.
The heroine is dating / deciding between two boys. One is a freshman at MIT / ridiculously smart. One of them gives her a rock from Cuttyhunk Island. I had never heard of this Island and was taken with the idea that it could produce perfectly round rocks because of tides and gravity,etc. For a work of fiction,it explained it pretty well.
The heroine keeps the rock as a talisman ( learned that word from the book ) and at the end of the book throws it into the sea because she doesn’t need it any longer.
That is all that I remember. Thank you for your help.
This book was on the shelves of the library of my middle school in the early 60’s. I would find it by the cover, which I think showed a tree with a round door. Not unlike Hobbiton, the story was about small people and their society. They lived in hollow trees. The thing I remember best is that the individuals wore capes that matched the color of their front door.
I read this book, from my high school library, around 1972. It was contemporary at that time. The main character was a pretty, poised girl who gets a job as a fashion model. This scene might have occurred during the hiring process, which took place at a restaurant. She gets the impression that one of the men is flirting with her, so she asks if he has children. When he says yes, she asks to see pictures of them, which distracts him from the flirting so she feels as though she has rejected him without offending him. The girl has a nerdy younger brother and this scene only stays in my mind because a friend who also read it asked me “what are the runs” when she gets to this part. The main character stays home with her younger brother when he has the runs. Although they typically quarrel like siblings do, she feels bad for him this day and is kind.