Category Archives: Teen

251D: A boy must find his strengths and his mother

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I am looking for a young adult book that I read between 1983-1990. (It may be marginally sci-fi or dystopian, I don’t recall.)

The story is: A boy/teenager’s mother disappears. As he tries to find her, he comes into his own skill-set (maybe as a mathematician, scientist or problem solver — something.) In the end, he finds his mother, and she explains that she is part of a group who intend to start a new society or colonize off planet — something along those lines. She left her life behind and vanished in order to begin preparations with the group because the time to start this new colony or society was drawing near. (I believe her skill is agricultural or scientific, etc)

The big revelation is that she couldn’t tell him about what she was doing or bring him along because every member of the group must have a special skill or contribution to make to this new society that they intend to form. She could only hope that her son discovered his skill and could follow the clues to find her. (Essentially, now that he has become worthy, they are reunited and he can be part of this new colony.)

Thanks in advance,
Jana P.

248H: A deaf girl is abducted

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Hi,
In the early 80’s, I ordered a book through either Scholastic or Arrow. The book was about a a young (possibly teenage) girl who is deaf. She gets kidnapped. Her abductors cut her hair and dress her in boy clothes to make her look like a boy. At one point in the book, either she or one of her kidnappers draws a bird on the wall of the room in which she is being held. The cover had a picture of a dark-haired girl on it and I want to say the deaf girl’s name was Katie, but I could be wrong. If you could figure out the title/author of this book, I would really appreciate it! Thanks.
-Amy Jones

246J: Stories for Girls to Live By

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I read a book of short stories in 1963. My memory is that the title or description following the title was “stories for girls to live by”. I believe one of the shorts was by Betty Cavanna. I do remember one of the stories had an excerpt about a girl on a sandy beach applying nail polish (crazy fragment to remember, I know). I have been searching for this book in vain forever. I lent it to a girl friend in 1964 and never got it back. If you can help me I’d so appreciate it as I would love to find a copy.

Thank you
Mary

245D: Two sisters come-of-age

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The novel was either YA or teen, something I read in the 1980s. It was mass market at the time. It focused on a family, more specifically a teenage girl. One of the first scenes involved her riding on the subway with her older sister. The two see a group of young men attempting to rob an elderly woman. The older sister steps in and is eventually kicked in the stomach by one of the men. This incident reveals that the older sister is pregnant, something that causes some conflict for the family. It is around Christmas. The younger sister spends time with a teacher, in one scene driving around at night looking at the Christmas lights. She also spends a night with a girlfriend of hers, someone who is depicted as a free spirit. I seem to recall that the younger sister was torn by her feelings for her sister – resentment at the attention she was receiving, but also love.

Thank you for your time.

244D: Synesthesia girl defeats corrupt Dystopian government (Solved)

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Probably 10 years ago, I read a young adult book that I cannot remember the title or author of. I also cannot remember the names of the characters. However, I can recall nearly the whole plot.

The main character is a girl who lives in a community that has rebuilt after the devastating sound wars. To avoid another sound war, they no longer sing or make music. They also all wear masks that they receive as young adults, to stay unified. Before they get their masks, they color a coat according to their ability by humming into a machine. The girl, however, does not seem to have a talent. She can see sounds as colors, but does not realize this is a talent, she just assumes everyone can do it. The girl is told that she will have another year to find her talent, but then she gets in trouble for sneaking in to watch the masking ceremony. She ends up having to work as a maid because of this. Then she does something else wrong and, to keep from being punished, she ends up running away outside the walls of her community. She finds a group of people who live outside the walls, and they teach her the true history of how the sound wars happened. The girl realizes that the people who are controlling her old community were the bad guys. She returns to save everyone, has an epic battle, and ends up using her gift to eventually conquer the corrupt rulers and free her people.

240B: Carrying The Mail In Old Florida

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I read this book in the late 1950’s or early 1960’s. It was in our school library. It was about a boy who was hired to carry the mail along the Florida coast before any development of the Florida coast took place. Along the way he saw many interesting sights and had various adventures. Finally he met a young girl and the two of them hid under an abandoned rowboat for protection in a hurricane. I don’t remember the title or the author. But I would sure like to be able to read that story again. It must have been written for older children or teens.

Thanks

crrunion

236E: Boy with special power

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Book I can’t remember details of:
Genre: Fiction/Fantasy (Most likely young adult/teen fiction)
Time Read: 5-7 years ago
May have been a paperback
Plot points: Main character is a boy, found/kidnapped after some tragedy (burning village?).
Kidnappers include a pair of twins? that have some sort of snake/venom/acid power.
They are encountered and defeated by another group of twins, who can control lightning or something like that.
(big time gap missing in memory)
Boy is taken to some sort of fortress/academy/institution and trained to fight, and ride large raptors?/bulls? which he enjoys a lot as he understands/knows a lot about them
He makes a rival out of his roommate or a rival is picked for him from one of the boys at the academy, not sure which. They get in fights (I think?).
There is a spot out in the training field of the academy with two buildings, one of them being a black isolation sort of box where people go in and experience things that terrify them and come out determined not to mess up again.
There is a test at some point where the boy has to travel through a very foggy area with a bunch of dangerous creatures to an old abandoned tower.
To graduate the academy there is a crucible/gauntlet/arena where he has to kill/defeat his teacher.
There is a love interest? who is the princess?(maybe) of a nation of people with beast powers.
In this book world there are people with powers that come from bloodlines and/or animals and/or eye colours and the powers generally stay within the kingdoms they originated from.
There is a character in some part of the book from a royal family that pushed their sibling/infant sibling/ or the heir to some throne from a window causing a severe injury which can be healed by the main character or something like that.
The main character has a power that allows them to view things from long distances, invade people’s minds, see spirits?(maybe), and other things like that.
Main character is maybe/likely an orphan, some part of the book involves a revealing of who exactly his parents (Father specifically) were.

227E: City boy and crusty mountain man thwart horse rustlers, catch and tame wild mustang

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Young adult book; city boy spends the summer in the high country with aunt and uncle who are about to lose their ranch; crusty loner/family friend takes boy into the mountains for a few weeks; they catch and tame wild a mustang and thwart horse rustlers and save aunt and uncle’s ranch.