- ✔ An orphaned Incan girl is sentenced to be sacrificed. The book describes her life over the few months leading up to the appointed date and her eventual escape. Children's paperback with a blue cover and an illustration of the girl dressed in bright clothes. Found! A Gift For Ampato
- A mystery solved by an orphaned girl who says she wouldn't be king (or queen) for all the tea in China. Features an attempted murder by poison of an old man, who is told he'll die "when the mockingbird's sing" (it may not actually be mockingbirds), the girl realizes someone has set his hearing-aids to play the sounds of mockingbirds, as they are not singing at that time of year. (Or something like that) Dark, quirky children's paperback with a mostly black cover with some electric blue and a depiction of the heroine in a lower corner.
- A book titled something along the lines of "The Storyteller's Apprentice," with a main character who dreams of being a storyteller. She runs away from home to meet a storyteller who lives atop a mountain and then to travel to the capital of her nation to reveal a plot to overthrow the crown. Young adults' hardcover fantasy in tan with an illustration of the girl's face. The book I read was oddly shaped, more square than rectangular.
- ✔ A book titled something along the lines of "The Ice Queen." Two or three children journey accross a frozen landscape to a castle in the north. There they find the banished son of their queen. They suspect their queen of plotting to destroy the land she rules, and join her young son in a quest to free their kingdom. A young adults' hardcover fantasy in white with foiled purple lettering and an illustration of blue eyes watching over three (maybe four?) silhouettes walking in the snow. Found! Snow-walker Trilogy by Catherine Fisher
- ✔ Two fantasy novels, perhaps the first two in a trilogy with titles something along the lines of "the white unicorn" (or horse?), and "the red unicorn". Young adult historical fantasy about a young woman in a warring land. She has the ear of a queen or princess who may or may not turn out to be related to her. Older books, the copies I read were both hard cover. (They look like they were published mid-eighties?) Found! Unicorn Trilogy by Tanith Lee. Black Unicorn, White Unicorn, and Red Unicorn
- A girl falls into a lake, following a boy she knows. She discovers another world and there are a few subsequent visits to it before someone tells her she must choose one or the other: the "real" world or the new one.
- A young adult fantasy novel in which a young girl living in a lonely old house in Ireland encounters the ghosts of a maiden and her cat. They become friends and the girl discovers that the maiden remains due to unfinished business- the man she loved has been cursed to spend eternity chased across the sky by the horsemen of legend, and the ghost of the duke or whomever who desired her also remains long past his death, and it is he who is to blame for the whole unfortunate scenario. It's called Tamlyn, or Tamryn, and on the cover is the ghost cat, sitting in the moonlight.
- A young adult Sci-fi novel in which a group of young men and women are sent on a series of simulated training missions in which they find themselves on another planet which they explore and enjoy. Unbeknownst to them, before the last of their training sessions they are selected to settle the actual, unsimulated planet (surprise) and are sent there along with a few other similar teams without being given the choice to remain on earth. They arrive to conditions worse than they are used to in the simulations and gradually discover that the world they're in isn't virtual and that the planet will become their permanent home. Relying upon each other, they build a new life together before the book ends. The cover of the copy I red was primarily orange-red, and I don't think it had any specific or remarkable illustrations, it might have just been some computer parts.
- A young adult novel about a girl who killed another child somewhat by mistake. Can't remember much else, but I think the main character's name was Julia and distinctly remember her mentioning that she was small enough to wear childrens' clothes. Paperback, blue cover with a chain of paper men and one broken off and falling sideways.
- A young adult novel about an underage journalism intern with a one-sided infatuation with one of her fellow interns. Published quite some time ago, possibly the eighties?
- A young adult novel about a school holding a beauty pageant. Narated by the younger sister of a beauty pageant queen with a bit of an inferiority complex. Blue covered paperback showing a girl in a low-backed green dress.
- A young adult fantasy/Sci-fi about two sisters who die in an accident. The basic premise is a little bit odd- that we live after death as a kind of vapour that can inhabit other peoples' brains. One of the sisters witnesses her own embalmment and later prevents a terrorist attack of some sort. Can't remember details about the cover.
- Young adult novel about two siblings who live in farmtown America with their grandparents. Their mother is a journalist and they see her only rarely. In this book they visit her in a city and the three begin to repair their emotionally distant relationships. The brother/ son is experimenting with becoming an artist and at one point tells his mother that he doesn't feel smart enough to be a farmer. Can't remember cover details.
- A christian romance novel about two missionaries in Africa, perhaps with Doctors Without Borders, but maybe another similar organization. The man is Scottish, I think, and he dies on a flight into the bush to help someone there. The title involves something about "Good Hope" or just hope in general. Small, pale blue, hardback volume, published in either 80s or 90s, with picture of the heroine on the cover.
- A story about a mermaid and a human who fall in love. Can't remember much about it.
- A story about a girl who lives by the sea and spends time in/ on it despite being told not to. Again, can't remember many details
oct 30 2012 ∞
jun 16 2013 +