Category Archives: YA (grades 7-9)

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

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Cheryl Hill, [email protected][/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.

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.