findthatbook | Entries tagged with sub genre: middle grade

I read this book when I was quite young, so it's likely a middle-grade fiction but I'm not certain. I remember that it was about a woman who was an artist and she woke up one morning and had inherited the job of Mother Nature. That was basically the plot as far as I recall.

I distinctly remember that she woke up at her usual hour and it totally messed up the schedule of the sun rising, to the point that it was in the news or something like that.

Sorry I don't have anything more to go on!

shieldmaidenofsherwood

My friend and I both remember reading this around middle school. There were necromancers (we think) and alchemists and at some point a girl cracks a pitcher over the head of the villian. The cover was really full of details and had a crow on a skull, maybe some scrolls

callunav

This was a novel somewhere on the line between intermediate and YA. It was very funny, probably mostly intended for girls, and vaguely historical - meaning it seemed to be set in some time pre-20th century (UK or Europe, I think), but I doubt it was adhering to any actual history very much.

I encountered it in 2016 as a hard-backed library book, in the hands of a kid who I would guess read at a 13-15-y.o. level. I had the impression that it was the first in a series, but wouldn't swear to it.

I unfortunately only got to read a few pages of it. It was a first-person narrative from the point of view of a girl who was, at least at the start of the book, a lady's maid. She was catastrophically bad at being a servant, mostly through wild, hyperbolic over-confidence. She spilled soup on nobility, all sorts of things like that, and when her employer exploded in rage at her incompetence, she assumed the woman was hysterical and slapped her. She sailed blithely through all the havoc she created, never considering that she might not be expert in everything. Many of her actions were preceded by statements like, "I have the decisiveness of a general - I quickly took command of the situation." There was a lot of "I have the ___ of a ____" in describing her own prowess.

I *thought* that the protagonist's name started with a P. Whatever it was, the title of the book was "Just [Name]."

I'm delighted to discover that this community exists, since I loved WhatWasThatBook on LJ. Any/all help appreciated.

ETA: Found in record time, despite several errors on my part. Thank you,

conuly!

ek_0725

So I can't find this book. I can't remember the author or the title. I can only remember the basic plot line. So it's about a boy named Blue, his dad drops him off at his grandmother's house. His dad is a famous race car driver, and Blue is very unlucky. Blue's whole family is cursed. His whole family either has super good skills, like his cousin (he has girl twin cousins) can tame and speak to animals, but her sister is constantly attacked by animals. But he meets this neighbor who's family is also cursed, in the same way except almost her whole family is unlucky. At the end Blue and the girl he met, have to destroy this crocodile-person-being to uncurse their families. Please tell me if you know this title.

klwill1192

I'm trying to track down a book I read as a kid. It was a 1970s era YA mystery. Here are the few details I remember:
The main character had a friend who was a genius inventor. One of his inventions was a retractable staircase.
The main character had a newspaper route and was in a contest to sell subscriptions.
One of the mysteries involved what turned out to be a (friendly) family of circus performers.
At the end, the circus family purchased a number of newspaper subscriptions that resulted in the main character winning (I think) the subscription contest.

I really don't remember much more about the book, but I'm hoping these details will ring a bell with somebody.

Thank you.

Kevin

Current Mood: calm

fin3apple

I'm looking for a book that I read a long time ago, long enough that I don't have any real certainty on when it was published or purchased. If I had to guess, I would say it's Judy Blume era? The narrative style and physical book seemed vaguely 1970s to me, but I wouldn't stake a bet on it.

The book itself about a teenage boy who plays pool for fun, and his family (possibly his grandfather?) owns a pool hall. His father, who is dead, was a pool prodigy, and the main character shares some of this skill. He also is getting bullied by another, larger teenage boy. So the main boy's pool hall is going to have some kind of pool competition, and there will be a teens section, but the boy's mother doesn't want him to. Then his dead father's best friend shows up in town after a long time, and agrees to train the boy to win the competition. At some point the bully break's the main boy's wrist, but I can't remember if that's before or after he starts training for the competition.

Something that I especially remember is that the boy's father used to look at a pool table and see geometric strings connecting the balls and demonstrating the proper angles to shoot, which was part of why he was so good. So while the boy is training, he uses literal string to practice this.

SPOILERS HERE
When the competition itself happens, the boy's wrist is sore and he has to ice it the whole day, but he plays very well. He is competing with the bully in the final round and then he suddenly sees the strings!
END SPOILERS

That's pretty much all that I remember. I know it's not a lot to go on, but if anyone knows what it is, that would be amazing. Thanks!!

tsukishima_shizuku

I read this book in elementary school in the mid-90s in USA and I believe it was fairly newly published at the time. It was a middle-grade chapter book with a blue cover.

I don't remember a lot about it but parts of it were told from the point of view of a dolphin (or some type of cetacean) undergoing intelligence testing. Then at some point the dolphin might have escaped from captivity. That's all I remember...

lauren_g

Book is about a little girl who is overly organized and neat. She is a teacher’s pet that is not well-liked by the other students, I think she’s in third grade. She has to sit next to or work on a project with the messy, wild girl in her class. At first they don’t get along but of course they end up becoming friends and helping each other and the neat girl learns to loosen up a bit and gets more friends in the process I think. I think she evens tries being messy herself at some point.

Images/things I remember:
-Book cover shows the neat girl with short hair and an upturned nose sort of look and the messy girl has curled red hair in a ponytail and is holding a binder and giving a crooked little smile.
-Neat girl is meticulous with organizing her binder and school supplies on her desk. When it rains, she is prepared and on top of her stuff. She has a thermos cup. Her bedroom is in the attic and she likes to pretend she is a princess in there.
-Messy girl is late to class and makes a mess from the rain on the neat girl. She brings a newt at some point.

I remembered as a kid the inner neat freak in me loved to read the descriptions of what the neat girl did so I could pretend to be as orderly as her and feel like I had my life together. Haha such a weird memory. I was reading an old, used book recently and the smell of the pages brought me back to this particular book for some reason!

Thanks for the help!

catspear

hello! I am so desperate to find this book. I read it as a kid in primary school. I rented it from a library and even a few years after I couldn't find it again and it's been driving me mad since (I am now 30!) so it was late 90s im guessing, and seemed an oldish book. The only thing I can remember was something about a ghost, and a necklace that ended up being exhibited at the Victoria and Albert museum - maybe the necklace was haunted? I know there was a ghost in it and maybe a brother and sister, but am sure the lead person was a young girl. Also there's something about pink and a wall - I'm not sure if book cover, title or what but I'm desperate to find out' if anyone has an idea please let me know!

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Find That Book

Find That Book

Entries tagged with sub genre: middle grade

Mother Nature?

Middle-grade fantasy / alchemy

Intermediate or YA novel about overconfident servant girl

Fictional Book, Probably Published Not Long Ago.

Looking for 1970s Children's/YA Mystery

Book about teenage boy playing pool

Dolphin intelligence experiment

Middle grade book from maybe the early 90s about a neat/organized girl

children's book - necklace, Victoria Albert Museum, ghost, pink wall

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