Category Archives: YA (grades 7-9)

364D: Children’s or YA Science Fiction—Girl goes to Mars, is orphaned during trip (Solved!)

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Read this hardcover from the library in the late 70s. Teenage girl with dead mother, lives with her aunt or grandmother but spends summers with her dad. When girl is near the end of high school her dad announces he has a wonderful opportunity–he has to make a trip to Mars, and he can bring along one person, which will be her. She doesn’t want to go because she had her next few years all planned out and it will be a year or more before they get back. She sulks and yells, but is told she IS going. On board, her poor attitude does not win her any friends or allies among the people she meets. There is a small group of other children and young people on the ship, but she alienates them with her constant complaining and her attitude that people who live on Mars are backward and ignorant. One young man who is returning home to Mars takes on trying to improve her attitude as a personal challenge. When her father dies during the trip, leaving her with no return ticket, the young man’s family unofficially adopts her and helps her adapt to Mars. She enrolls in college there, and generally drops her snobbish, “Everything Earth is superior” viewpoint. I think at the end of the book she is faced with the one-time chance to return to Earth, or to stay with the people she has come to think of as her new family. There was probably a romance between the girl and the boy who “adopts” her. 

I think it was shelved near the Beverly Cleary books, so author’s last name probably began with either C or  a letter close to it.

363T: Undercover Officer Wants to Bust College Drug Ring, Poses as Student

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I read the book I’m looking for as a young teen or pre-teen. 15-20 years ago. I believe it was YA because it was in my school library but the subject matter was more adult. There was a girl in her teens, attending a pre-college program or a school program of some kind but I believe it took place at a college. There was an undercover officer in it posing as a student and became close/friends with the main character. There was some kind of drug ring happening at the school that was being investigated. The cover of the book or back cover of the book had a window on it I think?

363S: YA novel with a young woman and a portrait

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Thank you for doing these. You helped me find another young adult book years ago, and I was so grateful. Unfortunately I can remember almost nothing about this one. It probably was set in the 18th century, and I believe it was in America. It might have been told from the point of view of a daughter or niece of the young woman in the portrait. All I remember is that the artist had captured her glowing and happy as she came in from out of doors. I think she was wearing a cape! There was a man beside her and it turned out the man who had made her so happy had been painted over with the likeness of her current husband. The other man’s portrait was underneath. Does that ring a bell?

363Q: St Patrick’s Day Nocturnal Mystery

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I hope that you can help me find a book that one of my former students is looking for! I taught her in 6th-8th grade in 2015-17 I believe. She messaged me on Instagram asking if I could help her figure out the title of a book she had borrowed from my bookshelf back then but I am coming up with no leads. Here is what she remembers: The main character is a girl who wakes up every morning at 3:17 am then goes back to sleep. (Not a time loop). She realizes at the end that it has to do with St. Patrick’s Day, between the time, and there are also St. Patrick’s Day treats and a party. My student thinks there is a paranormal mystery vibe and that the book ends on a cliffhanger. I’m going batty trying to figure this out.

363M: Quaker seamstress in Philadelphia during American revolutionary war (Solved!)

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Cheryl Hill, chill4hhorse@comcast.net[/private[

I am looking for a book I read as a teen and young adult in the late 1960s and early 1970s.  I recall finding it at my local library and I believe the author’s last name began with the letter A.  The story was historical fiction and the main character was a seamstress in Philadelphia during the revolutionary war.  She was a member of the Quaker religion and her fiancé fought with George Washington.  She worked in the home of Peggy Shippen’s family and was able to overhear some of the plans made by Benedict Arnold and his wife.

363H: Magic Mirror Leads to Another World

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I’m hoping that you can help me, I’ve been up for hours googling all the details I can remember about a book that I read and loved in 7th grade. I read this book in 2013 and I believe it was a fairly new book that the time. It may have had a second book in the series but I don’t know for sure.
I recall that the main character was a middle school or perhaps elementary school boy. I think I remember him going into a suspicious shop and noticing something odd about a mirror. Somehow he becomes in possession of this mirror. 
He discovers that the mirror is a portal that he can crawl through to get to another world. In this world I recall a forest, and maybe a fairy-like companion. In this world there is some sort of crisis taking place. I recall several instances of the boy narrowly escaping the mirror after being chased by some kind of monster. I think the boy kept the mirror in his closet. 
I can almost picture the cover of the book too. I can see lots of purple and black, and maybe some swirling style designs around the perimeter. And an illustration of the boy crouching looking into the mirror. 

362L: Sister Turns Out to be Another Personality

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I’m looking for a YA book from the late 80’s or early 90’s. It’s about a group of school students that go to an old house. The main character is a girl that has a sister. It’s revealed later that the sister is actually another personality.  I think there was a picture of a girl looking in the mirror on the cover. I think some bad things happen to the other students, but I don’t remember specifics.

362K: Mysterious Buckle Leads to School Bus Crash

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I am looking for a YA book about a girl that has a horse with a mysterious silver buckle or medal that she puts on her horse. When she touches the buckle, she can make a wish. One of the wishes she makes causes a school bus crash. The buckle is linked somehow to a dark force that ends up appearing at the end of the book. It’s a pretty dark book. I’m thinking late 1980’s or very early 1990’s.

361K: Four Girls at the Beach

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Looking for a book about 4 girls spending summer at beach, they each have different color tote bags, one swims in the sound and I think almost drowns, one bakes muffins with granulated sugar on top. I think it was published between 2000-2010, it’s a middle school/YA book with chapters.
 
I have tried to find it everywhere. It’s not a Sarah Dessen novel, but I’m pretty sure the author is a woman. I want to say it’s between 150-200 pages, but I could be off. It’s been a while since I read it. I really appreciate your all’s help!

361G: YA historical novel heroine Margaret Plantagenet of York, later Margaret Pole

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Young Adult historical novel about the childhood/teenage years of Margaret Plantagenet of York, who later became Margaret Pole, and her brother Ned (Edward, Duke of Warwick), at the end of the War of the Roses and beginning of the Tudor period.  It starts in the court of her uncle, Edward IV, after her father (George, Duke of Clarence) has been executed for treason, and ends with her brother’s execution and her romance with Reginald Pole.  My memory is that the heroine is known as Meggy or Peggy. I probably read this in the early 60s, but it might have been written in the 30s, 40s or 50s. I thought the author might be Elizabeth Janet Gray, Rosemary Sutcliffe, Margaret C. Leighton, or Elizabeth George Speare but can’t find anything that seems to match this story among their titles.