Category Archives: YA (grades 7-9)

248B: He dreamed of pheasant hunting

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I am looking for book I read back around 1970 at our local library-already checked with them.

It is a short hardcover bound youth book written probably for ages 8-12. I suspect it was probably written no earlier than 1950 and no later than 1970, by I suspect a minor author.

The short story, as I recall, is about a young boy who obsessively thinks and dreams about going pheasant hunting, he eventually does go pheasant hunting, gets all scratched up in the thickets chasing the elusive ring necked pheasant and after a long unsuccessful day of hunting I believe his father ends up buying some pheasants to take home so his son does not feel unsuccessful.

As I recall the book had a blue cloth cover with black impressed line drawing of a pheasant or two and perhaps a shotgun.

I would like to buy this book, not really concerned about the price-want to give it to my son.

It is for sure not “Danny the Champion of the World.”

Thanks

247D: Beautifully illustrated, cobwebby witches: Agatha and Hecate (Solved)

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This was a paperback, and I was born in 1974 so I would have read this sometime between, day, 1980 and 1988.  Probably suited for ages 6-12.

There were beautiful spidery-looking line drawing illustrations –  almost like Edward Gorey’s but a bit more complex and not so cartoony.

 

There were witch sisters, Agatha and Hecate.  They were not good witches.  There was a misguided/bad man who worked for the witches named Oswald.  The main characters were (maybe) siblings and the other main character was a girl they met who knew her way around the magical world where the witches were, and the lot of them got out of troublesome situations by stomping three times on a manhole cover.  when they did that, they would instantly be whisked out of the place and land somewhere else.  They used this at least once to escape the witches and Oswald.

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

246I: A “cave boy” survives on his own

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This is the first book I remember reading on my own, which would have been about 1954-55. The book was much older than that. From my hazy recollection of its appearance, I’d guess late 1920s through early 1940s. I have no memory of the title or the author. It was written at what was then probably considered a third- or fourth-grade level. There were some facing-page illustrations, but I don’t remember them clearly. It’s a story about a “cave boy” who becomes separated from his family, survives on his own, grows to young manhood, and is reunited with his family at the end. Besides that, I can remember only one specific incident: lightning strikes a tree, causing a fire, which is the occasion for the boy to discover the use of fire.

Would be delighted to find it again.

246C: A malicious forest (Solved)

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I read this book in the 1980s and it was almost certainly a children’s book, but a real novel. It was set in Europe I believe.

Long ago a boy lost his parent in a nearby forest. The forest is malicious and very difficult to walk deep into. As you walk into the forest, the placement on trees you had to walk around would gradually turn you back so you exited. Several years after the lost parent the boy has grown up and is determined to enter deep into the forest. He hires an airplane to take overhead photos but winds blow it away. Eventually he does make it to the center and there’s some kind of mystery. I felt it was very well written, a thriller, and scary, too. It seemed to have been set in the 1950s. I hope that’s enough. I’d love to rediscover this book and was glad to pay the fee! Thank you! 🙂

245E: A girl, a witch and a cat (Solved)

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I read this book in the 70s or 80s. It was titled something like “The girl, the witch, and the cat” or something. I really only remember that the title had a list of 2 or 3 things and said witch. It is not the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe. I believe there were 3 books in the series. It was about a girl around 12? who befriends a kooky old lady who turns out to be a good witch. The 2 become very close, like family. I believe the girl is an only child. There may also be an old warlock who is friends with the old lady. One part i remember is there is an old friend of the lady who tries to kill or put a spell on her. This results in the girl having to drive the old lady’s car to help save her. When she looks in the rear-view mirror she sees glowing eyes in the backseat; knows this is the bad lady. Somehow it all turns out good. It seems there may also be magical items such as a bowl, a phoenix, the cat, etc. Though I may be mixing those up with another beloved lost story.

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.

244F: Sisters, friendship, and paper dolls

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Two sisters, one late teens/early 20’s and one around 9 or 10. They are poor. I think the way it goes is that the younger sister makes a friend somehow and goes to her house to play or something. The friend is much more well off than the two sisters. The older sister comes to the house of the little sister’s friend also at some point. At the end the older sister and the little sister’s friend’s brother become boyfriend and girlfriend.

The one thing that really impressed me when I read it was that the two little girls cut out pictures of the models in catalogues and made paper doll families out of them and after reading that book my friends and I started doing that as well.
Thanks for the opportunity to say more about the story.  I hope someone else will recognize it.

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.