Category Archives: YA (grades 7-9)

373K: Supernatural spinning top

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I am trying to locate a favorite childhood book, probably published sometime in the mid sixties. I do not recall the title of the book, but it is in the “supernatural” category, geared for pre-teen or early teenage years. The main character is called Dorcas and she has a spinning top that allows her to access her supernatural power. I believe she is an orphan. There is also a young man that is her advocate. She acquires damaging information through her “gift” that implicates stalwart pillars of the community; they come after her as the book comes to a climax, with her being trapped in a cave by one of these perpetrators. She is rescued at the end of the book by her young protagonist who, at one point, had given her a red scarf. I always thought this book was called “The Spinning Top”, but any and all efforts to locate it by that title have been completely futile! I have been searching for this book for nearly 50 years and hope that, with your help, it can be found.

372E: Romance leads to “cheating”

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I’m looking for a book I read in High-school (2011) I believe the book was written and or published 1985 to 1999.


Keywords: YA romance, senior year American high school, new girl, friends boyfriend returns from a semester abroad, new girl falls in love with friends boyfriend.


Summary/synopsis:The book starts out with a main female protagonist who was new that school year. The setting is high school, in the autumn/winter. She goes to school and talks with her new friends and finds out that one girls boyfriend who is returning home from a semester abroad.When the boyfriend returns, he’s very welcoming and excited to talk to everyone again but it seems like everyone is treating him very similar to the way he was before he left. He wants to talk about his new experiences and the only one who can relate to is the protagonist as she had family in the part of England that he visited. They talk about the old stained glass windows. Later it’s apparent they like one other a bit to much. They are hanging out together but during one day, it is too much and they talk about his feelings for the main character in his car. They decide that they should put distance their relationship so as not to be unfair to his current girlfriend until he breaks up with his  girlfriend to be with the main character.Somehow the friends catch wind of this and assume that the main character and boyfriend were cheating more than they did. The Ex girlfriend and main girl get into an argument and later at school the friend group is mad at both of them but the two main characters support one other through this until the friends realize the main characters were sincere and tried to make the most out of a hard situation. I believe it ends with talks on them going to college potentially together.


Other details I remember: they held hands in the car and the main character noticed the boyfriend’s thick healthy nails.The main character was a brunette.The ex girlfriend was blonde.The boyfriend played a sport before going to England. 
I can work out more information if I can, but I don’t want to Mandela effect myself more than I may have already done.

371N: Vintage teen romance – California in the 1950s or early 1960s, boy next door, high school (Solved!)

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Hoping for some more of that Bookstumper magic to strike again!
I loved this book in the mid-1970’s! It was old-fashioned even then, so I think it was written in the late 1950s or early 1960s, probably pre-Beatles.  I guess it’s what they used to call a “junior romance” and what we would describe as Young Adult today. I read it many times as a pre-teen, mooning over the sweet “boy next door” romance, and waiting for my own love life to begin. By the time I was actually dating in the late 1970’s I was too old for this book, so I’m sure I was reading it around 1975 or 1976, before I had moved on to Barbara Cartland’s historical romances.

It’s the story of a pretty and popular high school girl in a typical white, middle-class California family and her male buddy, as they begin to date. He woos her with many fun outings, fancy restaurants (I remember she saves her cocktail umbrellas and swizzle sticks) and a boat trip to Catalina Island.  Her name might be Lori?? I definitely remember she has an older sister named Andrea, because I fell in love with that name for a while. 
Our romantic heroine finally declares she’s won over by her suitor, just in time, as he empties out his pockets and reveals that he’s down to his last pennies. He spent all his savings in his pursuit of her heart.
In the meantime, she has given a starring performance in her high school play, with all her family attending to see her.  This is quite a success for her, because although she is bright and talented, she’s lackadaisical and  usually doesn’t stick with anything. There was some sort of trickery involved with her date and the whole family being in on some conspiracy to encourage her to stay with the play all the way to its performance time.  I believe they try to make her jealous by raving about another girl who is a wonderful actress, and arouse her spirit of competition.
I particularly remember the trip to Catalina and the trickery about the school play, and all the dating souvenirs. 
This is not a Beverly Cleary book, although it’s in the same family. I’m sure hoping someone else remembers this!  Thank you.

371D: French Fantasy Book

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I’m looking for a French kid’s or adolescent’s book. I read it in French class in middle school. It had watercolor illustrations and had to do with color. Maybe color leaving the world or being stolen? I think the main character was a boy with colorful wisps for hair. He was on a journey? I remember a villain, but I might be mixing up another book. It had a wide, white face and big eyes. Sorry, I know this might just not be enough!

371A: The Girl Attends All Boy Calligraphy School (Solved!)

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I’d read this in the 8th grade which I’d loaned from my schools library but it’s about this young white girl who attends an all boy’s calligraphy school at the calligraphy teacher’s farm home. I don’t remember how she got the chance to attend the school but I remember she’s not well off and her youngest brother is sick. Before she leaves on the train to the school her older brother buys her a grey wool bonnet and writes to her while she is away. 
There was a page of the book that had shown one of her brother’s letters written in the crosshatching/ cross writing technique. While at the school the girl has an assignment that a boy in her class sabotages by spilling ink on it. Little details i remember are her needing a stack of bricks for her to place her feet on because she cannot reach the floor white sitting on her desk, the girl helping a woman remove garden peas from the pod, and her getting ready for a fourth of July festival in the town her school is in. There’s also a mention that her teacher has written his calligraphy in his own blood. 
I believe this was set within the late 1800’s – early 1900’s in the United states. 
I’ve been looking for this book for years so any help whatsoever is appreciated! Thank you so much! 

370Z: Boy solves small-town summer mystery

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In 1975 I read a young adult novel about a city boy sent to stay the summer at his grandmother’s house in a small town. He doesn’t want to be there and expects to have a boring time, but stumbles across a mystery that he decides to solve. None of the adults in town believe him, but he eventually solves the mystery with the help of an older, wisecracking boy from the town. I don’t remember any details other than that the town was very small and along a small river or large creek and his grandmother’s house was at the edge of town near the river. I think the story was set in the generic “midwest” or “northeast”. The book was probably written in the mid- to late 1960s or early 1970s. I don’t think it was part of a series.

370W: Child/pre-teen collection of eccentric stories occurring at a school/office

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I can’t remember whether the stories are related or unrelated. A girl named Erika/Erica presents something to her class (I think it was a poem or short writing), but her name is not revealed until the end of the story/chapter, when the teacher calls her up to the front to present. Another character figures out how to hypnotize people to bawk like chickens or do other things. The book is relatively short (probably around 100 pages) and I read it around 5 years ago. The stories were quite unusual, and I first found and read it in an elementary school classroom.

370V: Teen boy wakes up and nobody can see him, he thinks he’s dead (Solved!)

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I read this book as a kid in the 1970s. I don’t remember much, except that a teen boy wakes up in the morning and soon realizes that nobody can see him. He thinks he’s dead. He can’t really interact with the world, but he does manage to ride a bus without falling through the floorboards. It might be that he never existed–I seem to remember that people weren’t wondering where he was. It might have the word “disappear” in it.

370S: All About Puberty

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Looking for a pre-teen girl book I read in the late 80s/early 90s that was already really dated. The girl in the book is going through puberty and gets her period. But the maxi pads still have the belt and the hooks. My friend and I just saw Are you there God? and for the life of us we can’t remember this book. They may have also been a part about keeping notes in a notebook about puberty.