Category Archives: YA (grades 7-9)

278B: Girl returns to Malaysian rubber farm after the war (Solved)

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I read this book in my early teens and have been trying find it for years. A father sends a young girl away from rubber farm during the war. Upon her return from England, she finds she is an outsider due to not suffering the same pains those that stayed suffered. Her childhood friend (a boy) helped the villagers/prisoners by going night fishing to help keep people fed. The story resolves her relationship with the boy and her father.

278A: Rocket Club but not the Rocket Boys

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This is a book written in the 60’s about a group of boys who have a rocket club which meets on the farm of an old army general.

They design various rockets, and at one point there is an accident because two of the boys decide to include dangerous design changes.  I think they eventually get a trip to see a launch in Florida.  This is NOT Hickman’s “Rocket Boys” or “October Sky”.  It is also not “Countdown to Zero”.

276F: Scuba diving adventures

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Juvenile fiction from late 1960s or early 1970s with color illustrations of a teen boy and his father/uncle and their adventures scuba diving. I worked in the school library when I was 13-14 and was fascinated by this book, which piqued my interest in oceanography. I’ve searched on and off for many years. It’s not Sea Hunt and it’s not a Hardy Boys book. Any help locating a copy of this book would be much appreciated.

276E: A Pekingese puppy and a mystery (Solved)

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The book that I’m looking for was written sometime between the 1940’s and 1960’s (or so).  It was about a young woman who moved to live with her glamorous aunt in London.  Her aunt gave her a Pekingese puppy that she named “Peke Ah Boo”.  There was some kind of mystery having to do with the house next door and possibly a young man who turned out to be a spy?  It may have been a YA book – the copy that I had was hardcover in robin’s blue but there may have been a dust jacket at some point since I don’t remember any identifying marks on the cover.

Any help would be appreciated greatly, it’s driving me crazy!

273C: Four Corners Young Adult Mystery

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It’s a young adult mystery set in Four Corners area (Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Arizona).  A family moves to the Four Corner Area and the teen aged kids get involved with a museum.  The mystery involves oil and artifacts from the area.  The name of the book include the words “Black Gold,” but I’m not sure.  I read the paperback in the later 50s or early 60s.

272G: Orphaned teen keeps siblings together

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Looking for the titile and author of a young adult fiction book, paperback, published late 1970s or early 1980s, approx. 200 pages.  The book’s title could be similar to “Keeping It All Together.”  The story likely was set in the 1970s to early 1980s, England/United Kingdom or another country using pounds instead of dollars.  I read it around 1983-85.

After a 17 year old girl’s parents die in a auto accident, she toils to keep her orphaned younger siblings together, counting the days until her 18th birthday when she can become their legal guardian.  The story chronicles her struggles to survive with scarce funds and keep her siblings, their school work, home and run-down car from falling apart – all while avoiding the government social services inspector, who threatens to split the siblings up into separate foster homes.

The orphans secretly take care of themselves, while keeping up the appearance that an adult relative is helping them.  Some of the children’s names might be Maggie or Jenny and one of the brothers may have gotten into trouble.  The run-down car they use might be an old van, and the teen girl may have a befriended a young man who assists with auto repairs.

It’s possible the book’s cover art has a soft pastels/watercolor illustration of the family with a light yellow van parked outside their house on a residential street in England or Ireland.

271B: Child meets magical friend from a family of wizards/magic in secret garden (Solved)

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I have been looking for this young adult’s book for some time without success. I can’t remember any words of the title, it was aimed at 10-12 year olds. I read it in around 1990-1995, but it may have been published in the 1970s or 1980s. I’m pretty sure it was a British author, but it may have been American/Canadian. It was a slim paperback and I seem to remember that it came in a boxed set with a 3 or four other books, not necessarily by the same writer, but similar fantasy/magic genre. The story followed a young boy or girl who was staying with a relative somewhere, perhaps on holiday, who one day crawled under a hedge in the neighbourhood and into the garden/grounds of a wealthy and mysterious family, who turn out to be magical (possibly wizards). S/he meets and befriends the young girl who lives there who shows her various magical things but they keep their friendship secret as the other wizards/magical relatives would be angry if they found out she had come in to the garden. The family lives in a large and beautiful house and there is a magical lake in the garden which the two children sail across to an island in the center. They are later placed in danger when someone finds out the child is in the magic garden. I remember this being a wonderful story and would so love to find it! It is not Tom’s Midnight Garden or Timothy and the Witch.

270A: Girl joins circus, performs blindfolded trapeze act

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Girl has always loved hanging upside down, manages to join circus and be trained as a trapeze artist. Her trainer (and later love-interest & husband) catches her flying with her eyes closed and after much convincing, they turn it into a blind-folded act with silver dollars against her eyes and then covered by a blindfold. One mayor of a small town does not believe they are really blindfolded and arranges an accident. One of them is sent off course and the other must hurtle himself into her at an angle that will bring her into the net rather than a deadly impact.

In looking for this book I wondered if my adolescent self could have misunderstood the gender and relationship but MZB’s the Catch Trap doesn’t seem familiar enough.

The book was near Heinlein’s The Puppet Masters in my small middle school library so I believe the author’s name likely started with either an H or a nearby letter.

 

269F: Girl Lost in Woods/Mountains with Man Chasing Her

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I read this book probably in the mid 1970s, may be from the 1960s or a little earlier. I checked it out from the library in what was then the Children’s section, probably considered young adult today.  I have no idea of title or author.  The girl’s name may be Gail, not sure, about 15 or 16 years old.  She is camping? with her family: mother, father and I think one younger sibling. She becomes separated someway and I believe she may be trying to get to a Ranger’s station or something.  Some weird guy is following/stalking her. I don’t remember if he is just after her, a young girl, or if she saw something he did & is trying to stop her from getting help.  That’s about it, not a lot to go on, but I remember the book and would like to read again if I can find it!  I was probably 12 or 13 when I read it and it was very suspenseful to me at the time, different from Nancy Drew & Trixie Belden books I read.

269E: Greek mythological mash-up

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This was a YA or middle-grade novel that I read in the late ’90s. It was a very loose Greek myth retelling that mashed together many familiar mythological elements into an original plot. Possible characters: Perseus, Medusa, Pan, Echo, Iphigenia. Some or all of it took place on an island which had a network of caves. One of the characters–maybe a plucky young girl–was stranded(?) on the island and encountered someone who became a friend/ally while exploring these caves. I also remember music magically wafting through the caves. Maybe that’s where Pan comes in?

The copy I had was paperback with some blue and purple on the cover. The physical book and style of writing didn’t strike me as “old-fashioned,” so I’m guessing it had been published in the ’80’s or ’90s…but I could be wrong about that.

I’m fairly certain the author was a woman.

Thanks so much for helping me solve this mystery! I remember absolutely loving this book.