Category Archives: YA (grades 7-9)

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.

358S: Boy Switches Places with His Parallel Universe Version

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I need help finding a series I read about 10 years ago. I’ve been trying to find it for the last 6 months and have now made it a mission to find the series.
This is what I think I remember:
The books were in a public library in the young adult fiction section. It was about a boy that was transported to a parallel universe. I think it was a trilogy and one of the books had a purple-ish cover.I honestly don’t know if I’m remembering this right or mixing with another series.
The parallel universe version of him was then transferred to his world, so they basically switched places. They ended up meeting each other/themselves at the very end. The other universe he was transported to had knights I think? It was a fantasy world and different from his.

358N: Introspective Loner Girl and Her Rebellious Loner Boyfriend

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I’m having trouble finding a book I read years ago. I read it when I was a teenager so I assume it is a YA book but the characters came across as mature. It is at the minimum a duology but it could be a trilogy or more but I just never read past the first two books of the series. The second book I read when I was around 16 and it did not feel childish in any way.
Both books were written from the perspective of a girl who volunteers/works at a rest home or with elderly people. I remember the girl being a very introspective, bit of a loner type character who felt alienated from her peers to a certain extent. The male protagonist who is her love interest I believe may have been called Angus, but not 100% sure on this. He was a rebellious, mysterious type of character who may also have been a bit of a loner. In the second book, someone in the rest home dies which she has some trouble with and also their relationship ends as I think she may go away to college/university for the second book whereas she was in high school for the first book. The second-book is her former life falling apart to some extent and her having to grapple with feelings of depression, alienation.
The first book I read circa 2001-2005 and the second book I read circa 2006. The books did not feel at all dated when I read them. I read both books in New Zealand but I don’t believe the books were set in New Zealand. I have a feeling they were set in the United States as I remember vaguely that there was mention of college which is not a term we use in New Zealand. The books are completely realistic, with absolutely no elements of fantasy. I’m pretty sure the author is a female.

358L: “Baby” Doll Can Be Adopted After All

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I’m looking for a young adult book about:

Young mother with 2 girls, they lost their house to a fire, and therefore lost everything including their dolls and toys. I remember these phrases “Maybe a mouse in a box of matches”, and “I’ve got both my girls.”  They stay with relatives/friends and the girls have to sleep on an old sofa that due to the springs it is uncomfortable and creaks.

The mom finds a job as a cleaner in a motel/hotel.  They find a new home.  Outside their new home is a crab apple tree where the girls play catch with an apple. Somebody tells them about a place where they can borrow dolls and if they take good care of the dolls, they can adopt them.  They walk with their mom to find this place. Just when they are about to give up, they find it.  

The younger girl finds a doll and names it “Baby.”  Both girls are happy and one of them says “There is so much to do now”.  The mother sews the dolls new clothes and the girls are happy. However, a neighbors dog licks off the face of “Baby” and the younger girl runs back to the place where she borrowed it from to return the doll, knowing she won’t be able to adopt it.

So, now she won’t be able to join her sister in the adoption party. At the end of the story, the doll “Baby” is returned to the younger girl, all fixed up with a new face.  The man said because the younger girl showed responsibility with the doll by immediately bringing it back to the place where she picked it out, she is allowed to adopt it. This happened at the very end of the adoption party.