Category Archives: YA (grades 7-9)

361F: Was Magical Prudence Really There At All?

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Looking for a young adult book involving a skinny girl with long dark hair named Prudence who is possibly befriended by main girl character. At first I thought they were sisters but not sure. She might have mysteriously moved in to empty town haunted house. Don’t remember her having mother or if did was absent or witch. Remember big hill and snow with kids being out of school – Prudence might have made it magically snow to get them as friends/stop picking on her. Then think she just up and left one day and it was wondered if she was actually ever there at all. Don’t know if she was school aged/ever went to school

361E: Boy lives in lighthouse, has AI companion, fights elemental monsters (Solved!)

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This is a children’s series
Boy lives in lighthouse with an AI companion who designs all-terrain ships/vehicles. Boy uses advanced technology mods to fight elemental monsters. There was a secret base underneath, and the main character fights elemental monsters that occur beyond the borders of human habitation. the areas are separated into the prime elements such as water, earth, air and fire along with mixed elements such as mud and lava.
My son was reading this at school in 2010/2011 and waiting for new publications at this time. He has confirmed that it is not ’The Edge’ series or ‘Monsters of the Earth’.

360H: Young Adult Book About Teenager who plays pool and lives in an abandoned factory/hanger (Solved!)

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The book is relatively old (I read part of it around 2003 but it was published way before). The book was a young adult book that involved crime and a runaway that lived with two adults in what is either an abandoned factory or airplane hangar. The cover of the book I believe featured someone playing pool on it. The title might have been Me & (I can’t remember the rest). It was recommended to people that liked the Rag and Bone Shop and it was similar to the Westing Game. One thing I do remember clearly is that in the introduction the main character talks about how his dad can tell who has committed a crime or who has been to jail by just looking at them.

360G: Rivalry Turns Into Romance

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The book I am searching for is a YA contemporary novel wherein the heroine has an ongoing academic rivalship with a male classmate, which eventually turns into something more even though she already has a boyfriend. I think the book was published in the range of 2017-now. The book cover is black, white, pink, and orange with illustrated faces on it, in a style that in my head is reminiscent of the cover of All Your Twisted Secrets by Diana Urban.

359X: Drawings Lead to Time Travel to the Bubonic Plague

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Seeking children's/YA book about a girl who time travels/visits memories of a past life? - back to the era of the Black Death/bubonic plague - whenever she starts to draw in different places around town. When she returns to the present, her drawing is finished. Almost certainly published before 2000. Thanks!

359U: Teenage Girl Summer Coming of Age YA Novel with Oral Sex Scene

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I have been wracking my brain trying to think of this YA novel I read as a young teenager. I’m now 30 so I probably read the book in 2004/2005, if I had to guess.
The story is about a girl whose parents were divorced and so she goes to live with one for the summer (I believe her father). She’s bored in this sleepy little town and she meets a guy and has a summer of romance and exploration. The most distinctive scene I remember is that this love interest guy gives her oral sex and there is some line in the book about how “his tongue did its little dance.”
I also remember that even though the protagonist was a teenage girl, the author was a man, which shocked me. One of the testimonial quotes on the book sleeve said something like, “So and so masterfully captures the mind of a teenage girl.”
I have tried Googling versions of YA cunnilingus, YA teenage girl receives oral sex, YA teenage girl summer novel written by male author — all to no avail.
I’m hoping you can help me solve this mystery! Many thanks for your help in this.

359A: 90’s Satanic Panic Teen Romance

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This was most likely purchased from a Scholastic Book Fair in the mid to late 90s. I don’t remember the title but I think the cover was dark blue with an image on the front but I can’t remember what of. Something vague like two shadows or a book with a pentagram on it. It is a short book. Probably around 150 pages. Could be Middle Grade or Young Adult.
Details I’m pretty sure of: The story was about a teen girl who moves to a new town and gets a crush on a dark, mysterious guy. He brings her into a group of friends that seem cool and goth but end up being a satanic cult that sacrifices a cat in a dark cave. She is eventually saved by a love interest.
Details I’m unsure of: Vaguely supernatural elements as in things happen that seem magical but may not be. I think there is a scene where she escapes through the basement of a restaurant. Towards the end we learn that she moved to this town because her parents died and the parent’s dying was orchestrated by the cult. Maybe the leader of the cult is revealed to be The Devil. Maybe because we see flames in his eyes or some other devilish detail. There might be drugs involved. There might be an element where the protagonist thinks people have been killed but then they are found alive.
Thank you for the help! This has been bothering me for YEARS.

358X: Dystopian YA novel read around 2004 (not Brave New World)

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The book focuses on multiple points of view from different characters, but one character that stuck out specifically was a “drone” or something like that and he wasn’t supposed to have feelings but eventually does and becomes very depressed at the life he leads and the world he lives in and *trigger warning* commits suicide. I distinctly remember a quote by the “drone” and he broke a bottle or something and “digs and digs into his wrist until he dies”. Morbid but a distinct memory. This quote is the last part of the chapter if that helps at all? It was a chapter book and may have had a blue cover but I can’t totally remember.