Need help finding id for young adult science fiction novel.

July 10, 2010 6:08 PM

Help me figure out this young-adult book from my childhood. It's about a boy and girl communicating telepathically.

My massive google searches have not helped me. Here is what I remember:

- I rented it from the public library around 1990
- Story about a boy and a girl, the boy is on the inside part of some type of society and the girl is outside, but somehow they start communicating telepathically
- I'm pretty sure the boy's name was Tomas and he had a shaved head or no hair (I have an image in my head of the book cover)
- He was unhappy and I'm guessing it was some sort of dystopian science-fiction story
- I believe he was communicating to her in dreams


Ok, that's all I can remember but it's driving me crazy because in all of my googling I cannot figure out what it is. The other thing that isn't helping is that most of the time google is interpreting Tomas as Thomas, even when I do advanced searches.

posted by hazyspring to media & arts (20 answers total)

The Giver?
posted by doublehappy at 6:22 PM on July 10, 2010

Double Trouble?

http://www.amazon.com/Double-Trouble-Barthe-DeClements/dp/0140385606
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:27 PM on July 10, 2010

The Chrysalids?
posted by merocet at 6:30 PM on July 10, 2010

None of the above so far. The Giver came up a few times in my search and it's the closest thing I've found to it, but it's not the book.
posted by hazyspring at 6:40 PM on July 10, 2010

This reminds me of Peter Dickinson's YA novels but I'm having no luck finding decent synopses.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 6:40 PM on July 10, 2010

Are you absolutely sure the name was Tomas and not Jonas? Because is really does sound like a slightly misremembered The Giver.
posted by Justinian at 7:18 PM on July 10, 2010

I'm a hundred percent sure it's not The Giver. I am not completely sure on the name though. I am pretty sure it is a variation of Thomas.

Also, the Giver came out in 1993. I was reading this book sometime in 1990 or before.
posted by hazyspring at 7:23 PM on July 10, 2010

I thought of Joan D. Vinge's Psion, but I read it in 9th grade for a book report and am totally unclear on details.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 8:07 PM on July 10, 2010

Psion is a bout a kid named Cat, who has hair, so I'm not sure that's it.

It also vaguely reminds me of Moran's Emerald Eyes which is from 1988 and thus the correct time-frame. Except the kids name in that is Trent, not Tomas. And both Trent and Dense are inside the telepath's compound. But at least his name starts with T and he communicates with a specific girl telepathically. I guess.
posted by Justinian at 8:16 PM on July 10, 2010

(Denise)
posted by Justinian at 8:16 PM on July 10, 2010

There's a Tomas in one of the stories from The Martian Chronicles - he communicates telepathically with a girl from Mars. It's not a book unto itself but I thought I'd throw it into the mix just in case it jars a memory or something.
posted by iconomy at 8:22 PM on July 10, 2010

It's not The Chrysalids, is it? The boy's name is David, but he does communicate telepathically with a woman from outside his society.
posted by ms.v. at 8:34 PM on July 10, 2010

How about Slan? The main character is Jommy (not Tommy or Thomas).
posted by b33j at 10:00 PM on July 10, 2010

Did the boy live in a dome? This sounds familiar.
posted by freshwater at 10:24 PM on July 10, 2010

Might it be Andra, by Louise Lawrence? Here's the synopsis from the author's website:

It is 2000 years into the future and people on earth live in underground cities. Teenage Andra is recovering from a brain graft operation, and something very strange occurs. She begins to see the world from the viewpiont of the boy whose brain was used in tne operation – a boy who died in 1987. Andra feels frustrated by the rigid laws and narrow confines in Sub-city One. She rebels openly and becomes a symbol of freedom to the youth of the city. Together with Syrd, a young computer technician seeking asylum from the hostile country, Uralia, she stirs the young people into open rebellion. Will their quest for a more open and democratic society be a success? ....

posted by Joe in Australia at 10:27 PM on July 10, 2010

Okay, so give this list a look.

But tell me if this rings a bell: a teenage boy lives in a dome, or other protected society. No one has hair; he uses a depilatory on his head every day. Something happens, he ends up leaving the dome, and meets a teenage girl outside. Is this the book?
posted by freshwater at 10:54 PM on July 10, 2010

I swear to god I remember this, too. Were they possibly long-lost siblings? I'll be searching my brain (and possibly Google).
posted by sarahsynonymous at 11:01 PM on July 10, 2010

Are the two always having dreams about a Ferris wheel and the word "Stardust" in lights? And there's a little boy who can't talk? But, the children are Paul and Francine, and the little boy is Noah. If so, it is William Sleator's Into the Dream (when I read it, the cover was different than this link -- it was dark blue with a Ferris wheel in the background).
posted by Houstonian at 4:28 AM on July 11, 2010

I read this book too, but I can't remember the author or the title... Some more details that will hopefully jog someone else's memory: the boy lived in an underground city/shelter that people had retreated to in advance of some major disaster (nuclear war, perhaps?) The whole society thought the world outside the walls of their underground city was poisonous and impossible to survive in, that their underground city was the only remaining life on the planet. Big early plot point was that all the people in the underground city, male and female, were bald, for "hygienic reasons". Boy makes contact with girl on the outside, eventually figures out how to get out of the shelter, is amazed by dirt and people with hair, etc.
posted by genehack at 5:58 AM on July 11, 2010

Ok, I found it, thanks to freshwater.

The book I was specifically thinking of is called the Dream Catcher and was written by Monica Hughes.

The boys name is Tomi, and it's part of a two part book series. The first book was called Devil on my Back. I'm pretty sure they lived in a dome as well.
posted by hazyspring at 6:21 AM on July 11, 2010