This one has been keeping me up at night! There was a 3- or 4-book series I read from the freebie library book cart in the early-to-mid 90's (probably 1994ish, and the books felt pretty modern at the time so I doubt they were much older than that). They didn't have covers, so I don't have any visuals to go from.

It centered around a missing/dead girl named April. Her cousin and best friend was the narrator and was basically trying to solve the mystery throughout the series. April had a boyfriend named Spike, and she used to sketch him often, since she was an artist. April was friends/frenemies with a character named Lacey (I think), who was rich and popular and used to invite people over to swim all the time.

I can't really remember anything else about this, except random things (Lacey used to drink diet coke because she was "saving the calories for the cookies", and I think either April or the narrator came from a single-mom, poor-ish household). I would love to track this down. Any help appreciated!

I remember reading a book when I was in middle school about a group of schoolchildren who were troublemakers. I only vaguely remember the plot, but there was something about them being sent off to a special school that was kind of awful. I think maybe some of them lived in cars? There was a kind of anarchist vibe running through the thing. I think the title was something like The Scratchyard Kids, - I know for a while when I was looking, I kept getting it confused with The Pushcart War, I think because of a similarity in the title style.

I remember it was kind of a dark, disturbing book for me at age 12, but also fascinating. I'd love it if someone knows what I'm talking about, it's been driving me batty for years.

Some details:
* I read it from my school library in the early 80s, but I doubt it was a new release
* I was living in the Southern US at the time
* I feel like it was a hardcover with line art on the jacket, but I don't remember
* The kids in the story were very tough, streetwise.
* Oh, I think they staged some kind of rebellion against the school?
* To my twelve-year-old self, it was very dark and kind of scary in that all these kids were BREAKING THE RULES. And the battle between the kids and the teachers was kind of intense.

Sound familiar at all?

I'm desperate to find two books that I read in high school. If I returned to the school library, I think I'd be able to find where they were on the shelf, but it's a tad difficult to sneak in and searching their online catalogue hasn't turned up anything.

The first one was a relatively old English novel, about a girl who played the piano and had just discovered she was adopted. She was really distressed over this, and I can't remember why, but ended up on a holiday somewhere. During her holiday she was exploring some kind of history involving a Spanish princess, which paralleled her attempt to master Ravel's Pour Une Infante Defunte/Pavane for a Dead Princess.

[ETA: Found! Identified by maya_a - Requiem for a Princess by Ruth M. Arthur. ]

The second one is a mid-nineties Australian novel, featuring a relatively unpopular girl befriending a popular guy who had just lost his perfect girlfriend - sort of (I think it was implied that the guy was gay, and there was a big question mark over where the girlfriend had gone). I think they worked together on a project or something, because the centerpiece of the novel was the mystery of Joanne Lindsey's Picnic at Hanging Rock. At some point they went to visit Joanne Lindsey's house, and I know they went to Hanging Rock several times, and the perfect girl's disappearance or something was related to the mystery at Hanging Rock. It was stretching for the same eerie feel as PaHR, and almost got there. Not a typical teen novel.

Can anyone help? Hopefully thanks in advance!

I read it years ago. The lady lives in an isolated farm some miles from town, and her husband has gone away. She gave him the last box of matches as he left to make sure he didn't run out. The story starts with her returning from town (I think she got a lift) and going inside to light a fire. She thinks she sees the snowy wind blow something off the top of her box of groceries as she goes in, and realises later that it was the new box of matches she had bought. She lights the fire with the one remaining match, but the fire doesn't catch (she used the wrong newspaper), and there's a whole long bit about how cold she will get and that she will go to the barn and sleep with the cattle to keep warm if she has to. The story ends when she finds a single match in the bottom of a pocket of an old coat, and is able to get a fire going then.

Does this ring any bells with people?

I am actually a friend of secret_x_stars, she's kind enough to allow me to use her journal for the purpose for ending the torment to my subconscious and former child that my current ignorance provides.

Okay, let me begin by saying I do not do drugs.

I read this book when I was eleven or twelve; that puts this in 1999 or 2000. I will provide all the details that I can recall in as correct an order as I can manage. I don't remember any names except for a few supporting characters, which will be revealed in the possibly-correct chronology.

It's about a girl (fourteen, if I remember correctly) who poses as a nude model at an art school where her mother works. She loses her virginity to a much older man under a dock on a beach and describes how much this sucks, and then walks in on her mom sleeping with the same guy. In some bizarre fit of rage she bites her mother's naked ass and runs out of the house. It's revealed that the guy slept with them for a bet. Her mother finds her and they agree that she will only date men to the age of 30 and her mother will date 30 and over to prevent a similar situation.

I'm not entirely sure about the catalyst, but she decides to go be a comic book artist and train with her favorite artist ever, in some mountains. Something happens to her to make her unconscious during her travels to him, and when she wakes up she's being tended to by a gay French-Canadian midget, who turns out to be said artist.

The details get a bit fuzzy after this point, but I know she seduces a childhood friend whose father is a pastor or something, and when his father finds out he has a heart attack and falls into a pool. This is in the chapter entitled 'A Pizza Guy Named Jesus' or something like that...she also seduces a fortysomething man named Pablo (I think?) by pretending to be sixteen.

At this point, I even think I made this book up, but I would really like to be proven wrong. If it's just a bizarre dream I had, I can add it to the list.

Thanks for all of your help!

[edit] I remembered vague things about the cover! I think the title starts with a T, and it's very colorful and described low on the back cover as a coming-of-age story.

[edit edit] Noooo, it ENDS with a T! Visible Amazement by Gale Zoe Garnett. I found it because my friend suggested Googling "French Canadian DWARF" as opposed to midget. Hoo-rah. Maybe I'll sleep now.

I can remember almost the entire plot of this book but not the title or the author. It was one of my favorites when I was younger.

( I remembered LOTS! )

I have been looking for a book that I read several times as a kid.

I can remember some of it, but it's sketchy.

A family moves to an old ghost town to revive it for tourists, I think.

There is at least a girl and a boy.
And another family nearby with a boy that they play with.

In their adventures they uncover an old stagecoach, with bodies inside.
The little girl also finds a French Fashion doll with wonderful little outfits and accessories.

The illustrations I recall would place it being published in the 50's or 60's.

I loved this book so much, and want to find it again.

Sound familiar to anyone?

Does this sound familiar to anyone?

The book in question would have been around at least since the 1970's, probably before that.  The plot centers around a cat rescuing a VW Beetle from its owner, who is...too large for the car, maybe?  I remember something about the cat putting the car in the freight elevator of the apartment building. 
------------------------------
EDIT: found --- thank you!

It was a series of books with a lady that was a nanny (?) and she would solve problems with the families. That's so generic, I know. But I remember one story was about kids that wouldn't ever hear anything correctly. Somebody would say something and the kids would always respond "Oh, I thought you said..." and then would say something completely crazy and different than from what was originally said. The nanny's name was something like, Mrs. Wiggles or something like that...?

If you can find this book for me, I will be eternally grateful. I've searched my hometown library's catalog, Google, Library Thing....

I read it between 1993 and 1999. It was a white hardcover with a black-and-white photo on the cover and I believe black-and-white photos throughout the book. It was an anthology of poems by various authors with a Western/pioneer/prairie theme. Not historical, necessarily; I believe the poems were contemporary, or a combination of contemporary and classic.

The only poem I remember any of, and the reason I want to find the book, is a poem that I believe was called "The Wind" (yeah, try Googling that! :p):

They said there was no cause for [something], but still /
The wind was always blowing on that hill.

It's about a pioneer wife who either died or went crazy due to isolation.

I hope someone knows something more than I do!

ETA: Found it as soon as I posted this (of course): Poetry of the American West. Don't know why it was so hard to find--finally came up on Google *book* search.

I'm sorry, this isn't actually a book I'm trying to find--what I'm looking for is a fairytale I read on the internet a few years ago. I'd have to say around 2004/2005?

I asked about it in a fairytale community, and someone pointed me here saying you guys are really awesome at identifying things. Sorry for breaking any rules D: Anyway, it has probably been published in a book somewhere, maybe?

Since I read it online, it was either public domain or an original piece. I don't remember what country it originated from. I remember it having a somewhat long and hard-to-remember name? Not sure...

It had a sun/moon theme. When I google this, I come up with "Sun, Moon, and Talia" and "East of the Sun, West of the Moon" but neither are the correct one.

It is basically about a maiden or princess who is locked up by three women/witches in a dark room at birth. They tell her she can never go outside. One night she sneaks out and the outside world is so foreign to her, but so beautiful.

One night she stays out too long and the sun comes up. It blinds and frightens her. She faints and a prince, who was mentioned at the beginning of the story, finds her and rescues her.

( Here is a more in-depth synopsis )

I'm looking for a romance novel. I think I read it it in 2002 or 2003. The guy was a lawyer I think, and the girl grew vegetables that she sold to a chef friend of hers. Very mismatched couple finds love type. And the chef is gay and the lawyer's partner figures out that he is too or at least bi after meeting and starting to like the chef. It turns out that the lawyer's partner did experiment in college but thought everyone did and at the end of the novel those two are living together with copper bottomed pots in their apartment and the girl and guy get married and the girl winds up at the guy's office in a teddy and trench coat with nothing else on underneath I think? It was a mainstream romance, good and thick USA based. Please and thank you

This one shouldn't be too hard to find--I just can't find a description online that matches what I recall.

I'm pretty much positive that it's a Betty Ren Wright book, because only so many children's horror-y books are set in Wisconsin, heh. All I can remember is that the main character ends up living with people of Cornish descent--if I recall correctly, maybe somewhere around Milwaukee, and she really doesn't want to be there. And there was some horror-y, ghost-y element to it, I think, but what I really recall was the whole this-place-has-lots-of-Cornish-heritage-people-in-it thing.

Any ideas? I was thinking maybe Ghosts Beneath Our Feet, but from the rudimentary descriptions I was able to find online, it doesn't sound right to me.

Thanks!

ETA: Found! Ghosts Beneath Our Feet by Betty Ren Wright, indeed. :D

I think this would have been a young adult book. I probably read it in the mid 90s. There are teens (or maybe 20 somethings?) working in a store of some kind. There is an earthquake and I believe they are trapped for a bit. While trapped they find a hot plate or something that the owner had rigged to burn the place down to get the insurance money. I believe towards the end of the book, after they are rescued, they go to hunt down the owner. I have no idea what the title might have been or who the author was.

Okay, the first two are super-long shots, because I barely remember them. But! They all involve time travel.

Book one, I want to say that some kids build a time machine (maybe accidentally) in the garage, and wind up on the Titanic. I may have gotten this confused, and it may have actually been a case where some modern day kids where visiting a relative, or talking to an elderly neighbor, who'd been on the Titanic. FOUND! Back to the Titanic by Beatrice Gormley

Book two has two main character, both boys, who are either preteens or early teens, and somehow they wind up bringing a teenage Abraham Lincoln to the present, where he either runs for class president, or helps one of the boys run for class president. One of the boys was also spazzing out about the effects of not returning Lincoln to the past. FOUND! Abe Lincoln for Class President by Todd Strasser

The last book I read a lot more recently (and remember more of), because it was on my cousin's booklist for fourth grade. A boy in modern times who's in foster care visits Ellis Island with his class. The only thing he has of parents' is a necklace of a coin, I think. Anyway, they're looking at the wall of names, and someone points out one with the same last name of the boy, and asks if it's his relative. The boy spazzes and runs, and eventually winds up in the past, in Italy, where he basically meets up with grandfather (great-grandfather?) and his brothers, who are also orphans. One of the brothers winds up dying, and the modern day boy takes his place on a journey to America. Once they reach Ellis Island, the modern boy travels back in time to present day, but now with a sense of family. FOUND! Orphan of Ellis Island by Elvira Woodruff

Okay, I actually am looking for two books that I read in middle school. I think they're by the same author, but maybe not. I think both were written in the 70s or 80s, but set earlier.

First one: The main character is a kid named Jed?, who carves little wooden animals. He sends some off to an art contest. His father works in a coal mine, and the boy is always worried that he'll die in a cave-in, but I don't remember if the father actually dies or not. A new teacher comes to teach at the local school and everyone's suspicious of her, but the boy likes her. For some reason his father makes him fight with his best friend, and they pretend to knock each other out. Late in the story, the boy gets a letter from the art contest people telling him he didn't win.

Second book is about a girl whose father's in jail (for mail fraud, I think), and a little neighbor kid follows her around making fun of her about it. I think at some point in the story she breaks a church window with a rock, but I'm not sure about that. Also she has a dog that she claims can climb trees. I think one of her classmates dies, and the main character's mother helps prepare the body for burial. I'm not absolutely sure that's this book, though.

I read this book during my study period in the school library...it must have been either 1989 or 1990 (somewhere around there)...and it was a paperback young adult book.

I think it might even have been a series of books, since I seem to remember it ending on a not-so-complete note. And for some reason I think the name of the author starts with an 'S'...or maybe an 'R'...and I think it may have been a husband/wife team as authors??

I also remember the beginning really well, but am fuzzy on the rest of the book. Starts with 'typical high school boy with crush on girl'. He has her phone number and wants to call her after school. He gets home, but parents are gone (at work or maybe even mom out shopping...anyway...not home) and is agonizing over calling this girl. He goes so far as to write out on a piece of paper subjects to talk about with her. In the background, the television is saying things like "Talks have broken down..."...."The Armed Forces are preparing..."...but the kid isn't paying attention because he's planning on calling this girl.

I don't remember if he does call her, but the Emergency Broadcast thing goes off on the television...and somehow he ends up with a girl in the basement of a theater (how they get there, I'm not sure...and I am not sure if this was the same girl he was going to call...I don't think it was though).

They bunker down in the basement for awhile until they need to find food and the rest I'm fuzzy on, though I do remember them leaving their shelter and venturing into a new world that is dealing with the aftermath of nuclear war.

I don't know why I've been thinking of this book, but if anyone can help, I'd greatly appreciate it!

FOUND!
Firebrats by Barbara Siegel, Scott Siegel and Barbara Steiner.

I am trying to remember the name and author of a book about a post-apolypse rural society (possibly California) that joins with a mountain-based (Rockies?) industrial group to launch a solar-powered spaceship.

Does anyone recall such a story?

Thanks.

Seeing a different time-travel book being posted about, I remembered one I had read long ago and loved. Can't remember at all what the name or author was.

In this book, I'm not sure how the guy got back in time--it was some room in his bank where he worked? Some weird storage room, something, maybe an experiment of some sort. Anyway, he follows some other guy back in time (he wasn't aware of this whole thing before), and sets in motion an odd chain of events. The guy who he followed to go back in time accidentally injures some man from the past, who was going to assassinate President McKinley but now couldn't because he was either seriously injured or dead. Because McKinley wasn't assassinated, some other historical things did or didn't happen (something to do with railroads, maybe a port?), and the next-door neighbor of our protagonist didn't lose her first husband (he had died in some accident and she remarried) and thus never remarried nor had the son with her 2nd husband (and thus didn't share the close relationship she had with the protagonist as neighbors). Because that son wasn't born, he wasn't there at a picnic with the protagonist to save the protagonist's son from drowning. Because the protagonist's son drowned, his wife and daughter are all bitter and unhappy people. The protagonist comes back to reality and can't handle having his son alive one day (as a teenager), and next discovering that he died when he was like 7 or 8, and there's no one to even believe him. He thus goes back in time again to undo the series of events, befriends the assassin and helps him on his way to kill President McKinley (this was a struggle for him, but he realized that in order for his son to survive, McKinley had to die, thus causing eventually the first husband of the neighbor to die. I almost am thinking it might have had some Christian theme throughout it--his wife being bitter at God because the son died, or something, but I could be inventing that.

Anyone recognize this book?