Category Archives: YA (grades 7-9)

315N: Teen fiction book, bullying, blackmail and revenge!

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Hi, I am trying to find an older children/teen fiction book probably published in the 90’s. It is about a group of classmates being blackmailed by the caretaker’s son, who knows each of their secrets. They group together to seek revenge and get their secrets back. There is an Asian or Indian girl, who cheated on a test, a girl with a white streak in her hair from a scar, the bully refers to her as ‘bird crap’ and I think her name was Rosa? A boy called Liam, nicknamed ‘mouse’ and the son of a famous footballer player, who is new to the school. The caretaker’s son loves battenburg cake, which he calls ‘window cake’. They all get their secrets back from him in the end, and confront him, meet his mother, etc. I have hunted the internet, but can’t find any sign of it!

314U: Coming of Age Mystery

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I’m looking for a young adult book I read in the early 1990s about a (teen) girl, coming of age mystery. She is sent to live with her aunts, in the American south, or near a desert as vultures or large birds appear. Thought this was a Madeleine L’engle book but doesn’t match those on her site. There is a mystery to uncover, perhaps time involved. It was not contemporary to the 1990s, the characters were dressed more old fashioned, in dresses, but I think automobiles were around.

314N: Magic Siblings Avoid Abduction

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This book was found in the children's section at my library around 1985, although it was likely older than that. A group of three or four (or more?) siblings have magic or psychic powers. I believe they can all move things without touching them and maybe fly? I think I remember two scenes: 1) the children were flying in the living room and broke a vase. They used their powers to clean up before mother saw. 2) Villians have followed the children to a movie theater. They escape by crawling under the seats.

Thanks for your efforts!

314I: Kids’ Club Series of Books

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I read a series of books in the late 1970s or early 1980s at my local public library. There could have also been a second or related series. They were hard cover, young adult books. At my small town library, they could have been published quite a long time before that.

The series involved a number of children that formed a club and solved mysteries. Both boys and girls were in the group. The series was set in the west or in the mountains. The words “Treasure” and “Indian” come to mind when I think about these books, one of them could have been part of the name of the club.

314A: “Second Sight” Saves the Prince

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I’m looking for a children’s/ young adult novel I found in a school library in 1977. I thought of it then as an “older book,” so I’m guessing the publication date to be between 1945 and 1965. It’s historical fiction that takes place during Scotland in the Jacobite period. The main character is a teen girl who sometimes has visions via the “second sight,” a gift that allows her to help save the prince at the end. It’s not a Sally Watson book.

313H: Monkey Brain Time Travel (Solved)

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I’m haunted by a (probably YA) time travel book I read in the mid 70s. I believe it takes place in England, where relatives are visiting (maybe from America?) their professor/scientist Uncle (?) who has produced a time travel potion. I think one of its main ingredients is monkey brains, but I’m not 100% sure. The serum allows the imbiber to travel back to Middle Age Britain, not sure if it’s as an active participant or as a fly-on-the-wall. Whichever character it is that starts taking trips, soon gets caught up in the people and events of that past. He becomes addicted to it. The danger is that his body stays more-or-less in present day geographically, so when he comes out of the trip he may be standing in the middle of a super highway or some such that wasn’t there hundreds of years ago. I don’t remember the resolution. I just remember loving the imagery and concept. Anybody?

311Z:Octopus For Dinner

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I read a book when I was a kid 1993, the book felt modern) that was about a girl who was invited to sleepover at her friends house for the first time. Main girl is white and the friend is black. She’s very anxious, one thing she worries about is they will serve something weird for dinner like an octopus. She goes and they have a good time, in one part they run through cornfields at the friends house. It’s definitely geared towards 7-12 age group, some illustrations. I’ve been searching for years!!

311G: Jacobites and Second Sight

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Hello.  I’m looking for a children’s/ young adult novel I found in a school library in 1977.  I thought of it then as an “older book,” so I’m guessing the publication date to be between 1945 and 1965.  It’s historical fiction that takes place during Scotland in the Jacobite period.  The main character is a teen girl who sometimes has visions via the “second sight,” a gift that allows her to help save the prince at the end.  It’s not a Sally Watson book.