Category Archives: YA (grades 7-9)

222A: girl who moved to New York City in the summer (Solved)

I’ve been trying forever to remember a book that I read when I was young. I think I was 10-13. Mid-80s. There was a girl who moved to New York City in the summer. Because she had no friends yet (I think), she spent a lot of time exploring the city by herself. She rode the bus by herself and she went to the movies by herself. She was really into fashion and talked a lot about the outfits she was putting together every day. I think that there was a department store that she loved and maybe fantasized about buying something there? I think she did a lot of window shopping.

I don’t remember her interacting with any other characters, so I have no idea what the plot was. I just remember thinking that it was so cool that she was getting around the city by herself, and that she was so fashionable.

220A: The Mystery of the Missing Diamonds

Publication: I believe this book was published in about 1969 or 1970.

Genre: Early teen to Pre-teen mystery, possibly bought from Scholastic Books

Plot: A young girl with the last name Duncan solves a mystery of some missing diamond jewelry. She ends up finding the thief, a lady new to town who goes everywhere with her poodle. The diamonds were hidden in the puff on the poodle’s head. Story takes place in the summer. One chapter in the book describes a garden party where the main character’s friend dresses in matching mother-daughter outfit with her mom. Main character appreciates her own mom as dressing in an “unfussy” way.

218F: a wet Cat. Dozer

Looking for a book I read in the 1950s or early 1960s. As I recall, it was about a teen or a couple teens who recovered a Caterpillar D2 bulldozer from a lake or pond, got it running, and used it for various projects. Could have been a Scholastic book club book. Was hardbound. One of the few non-classic books I remember reading as a youngster.

218E: Separated identical twin boys

This book was about identical twin boys, one of whom was thought to have drowned as a baby. His brother, however was convinced his brother was still alive, and the book was about his search for him, which was eventually successful. His brother had been snatched by a distraught mother; her own boy had just drowned, and it was this child who was wrongly identified as the lost twin. I had thought the author of this book was James Hilton, but if it was (and I am quite probably wrong about that) I cannot identify the title.

217C: Twin Girls Separated as Babies (Solved)

I’m looking for the title of a book I read sometime between 1984 and 1991, which had probably not been published very long before that, about twin girls who had been separated and adopted by different couples when they were very young. I think their parents had died, and the twins were split by their grandparents. One twin lived in San Francisco. (I’ll call her Twin 1.) They discovered that they were twins when one of the girls found her original birth certificate which listed her as a twin and confronted her adoptive parents. The girls met, and Twin 2 went to San Francisco to visit Twin 1. There was something spooky going on, and the San Francisco fog was played up for the creepiness factor. I believe it ended up that Twin 1 knew someone or something was trying to kill her, and when she discovered that she had a twin she planned to take over Twin 2’s life and leave Twin 2 to die in her place.

This is not Stranger With My Face by Lois Duncan.

217B: Girl Coping with Parents’ Divorce and Father’s Second Marriage (Solved)

The book I’m trying to remember is a YA novel about a girl in middle or high school. Her parents were recently divorced, and her father remarried not long after. I think his new wife was a teacher, or maybe a substitute, at the girl’s school. The girl has a new babysitter or nanny or au pair, possibly an older high school or college student. I think they might have held a seance or used a Ouija board together, but I’m not positive. There was a scene with the girl and her mother driving in the rain, and the girl was thinking about her father’s second marriage, with the words “Divorced in (a month, maybe December), married in (another month, possibly May)” running through her head like a chant in time with the windshield wipers. I think the girl’s last name is Beckwith, or something similar, but that’s the only name I remember. I think it was probably published between 1985 and 1991, or sometime close to that.

216D: Toy soldier battles

I am looking for a children’s (young adult) book whose name I do not know.

I read the book in the early 1950’s, but would guess that based on the illustrations in the book it was probably written before or at the beginning of second world war.

The book is the story of a child (possibly English) who collects toy soldiers which he uses to fight mock battles with other children. He is lured into fighting an unfair battle with his nemesis, and as a result loses all his soldiers. Due to circumstances that I do not remember he gets a chance to create a new army of toy soldiers which he uses to defeat his old enemy.

The book is well illustrated, Showing WWI (or at least British) toy soldiers and equipment.

Unfortunately I do not remember anything else about the book. the cover was missing when i got it. It could have been published in England.

215E: 2 cousins looking for lost gold mine

Young Adult book about 2 estranged cousins who team up on a ranch to hunt for a lost family gold mine. One of the cousins breaks his leg at some point. They find secret messages inside canes that when wrapped around the handles form letters. They eventually find one of their ancestors dead in a cave. There was something about Archimedes as well and using water displacement as a measure I think. Read it in the early 80s but no idea how old it was.

214D: amusement park or maze on cover

Children’s/pre-teen book, under 200 pages. The cover was white and I’m imagining either an amusement park or maze on it. I’m picturing red (lettering, maybe), too? I keep thinking the title has “joker” or “game” in it. I read it in the 1980s, so published then or earlier. I don’t remember much of what it was about, but it was probably a fantasy-type book kind of like “A Wrinkle in Time”, “Neverending Story”, Labyrinth (the movie w/David Bowie)….
I wish I could provide more details If you figure this out, I will love you forever. I LOVED this book!