I've been trying on and off for years to remember this YA book. Actually, I think it might be a series, but maybe not. Details within. [more inside]
posted by fozzie_bear on Jan 25, 2013 - 6 answers

Help, mefites! Y'all're amazingly great at tracking down obscure music and books with little info, so I hope you can help me. Two YA books, both read in the late 1970s: 1 - urban kid gets involved with a gang called the Scorpions. Also, his family was so poor he had to eat cereal with water. 2 - fantasy novel - there were goblins who were destroyed/harmed by butter. Any ideas?
posted by Bourbonesque on Aug 17, 2012 - 6 answers

Help me identify a young adult book I read in the late 70s or early 80s about a boy lost in the wilderness. [more inside]
posted by Occula on May 17, 2012 - 5 answers

Help me locate a book I read when I was 10 or so? [more inside]
posted by dotgirl on Apr 21, 2012 - 3 answers

I am looking for YA books with a female main character, that will pass muster with very conservative Christian parents. [more inside]
posted by PercyByssheShelley on Mar 6, 2012 - 60 answers

Do you remember this YA book about two girls from different worlds spending a life-changing summer on the beach together? With a small bit involving Tarot cards? It's not Judy Blume's Summer Sisters or Francesca Lia Block's The Hanged Man. [more inside]
posted by rhiannonstone on Nov 17, 2011 - 10 answers

BookFilter: Please help me identify a YA sci-fi book I read as a teenager in the 1980s. Full description inside. [more inside]
posted by halfguard on Apr 1, 2010 - 8 answers

The young man (12 years old, from India) who I sponsor wants to be a pilot. [more inside]
posted by roomthreeseventeen on Jan 4, 2010 - 17 answers

[Bookfinder filter] Help me identify a weird book about black magic from my childhood. [more inside]
posted by Ziggy500 on Nov 18, 2009 - 6 answers

I'm looking for academic novels from the student's perspective (apparently this is a subgenre of campus novels called varsity novels). Bonus for books considered "young adult." [more inside]
posted by alicat on Nov 15, 2009 - 28 answers

WhatWereThoseBooksFilter: I'm looking for several unrelated books, or possibly series of books, that I read as a kid. The first involved a family of magic users living in what was the time the modern world. [more inside]
posted by Caduceus on Jul 1, 2008 - 4 answers

Namethatbookfilter: Anyone remember the title of a children's fantasy about a witch, two kids, and a goblin king? [more inside]
posted by Iridic on Oct 14, 2006 - 3 answers

I have always enjoyed reading the summaries that often appear in the Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data (the small type at the beginning of the book that includes the date of publication, etc.) of books for young people. Just because they're amusing, I'll provide an example:

Poinsettia and the Firefighters by Felicia Bond
Summary: Poinsettia the Pig feels lonely and afraid of the dark until she learns that there is someone else awake and keeping watch all night: the fire fighters.

Why are these summaries there? Why don't books for adults have them?
posted by bubukaba on Feb 3, 2005 - 3 answers