Hello Sars and TN!

After posting for a couple of years in the comments, I too have to tap the mighty organic computer brain that is the Nation for help with a couple of books that I desperately want to track down. The first one is probably easier.

It’s unusual in that I actually remember the title. It was an age-10-and-up book called Amanda, and was about a girl named Amanda (duh) who moves in next door to a girl and her sister. The sisters watch her move in, and the younger sister comments that they don’t have a TV set.

The girls start hanging with Amanda and each chapter is a magical adventure involving, among other things, sending a rocket to the moon (the girls stay up late and watch out the window to see it hit); buying tons of candy and hanging it in a tree to make a candy tree; getting the little sister a kitten that can turn into a tiger (so their current, jealous adult cat won’t kill it); and riding the Mobil Gas station horse from the top of the station like Pegasus. (The cover I remember had this illustration.) The book ends with Amanda moving away again.

Now, with all this info this book should be easy to find, right? Wrong. I cannot remember the author’s name, and while there are tons of books out there with the title Amanda, none I’ve found so far are correct! I would dearly, dearly love to read this book again.

The second book I have much less info on. I would have read it in the early ’80s and found it in my junior high library. I remember thinking at the time it was a bit adult for the room, but it was there.

It involved a group of intelligent but troubled teenagers who follow a guru-like boy to a hidden mountain to change the world. The few details I can remember: one was an auburn-haired, violet-eyed girl named Helena who had a drug problem, and one was a young gay guy who had a crush on the boy leader (the boy was a teenager too). There were a few advanced-for-the-time comments on how the gay guy’s only real problem was that he was ashamed of being gay (but they used the term homosexual).

The only other thing I can remember was at the end, the guru is killed, and the kids scatter back to their homes only to begin changing the world just like they wanted. I specifically recall Helena starts a very good drug rehab program for teens, but that’s about it.

If anyone out there in the Nation can direct me where the Google and Amazon gods have failed, I’d be forever grateful!

The Notorious J.E.N.S.

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Hello Sars,
Here is another ghost of books loved but forgotten for you or the Vine readers to hopefully identify.

I read this story around 1974; it may have come from one of those “readers” you get handed at the beginning of the year in elementary grades — has many stories. I went to the single, tiny elementary school in Taos, NM, and they didn’t have a lot of money, so the book may have been old already.

The story-teller is a young girl. A new boy arrives in school and she likes him. She and the boy either walk home from school together and stop somewhere, or they’re just alone together at some point, and he reveals to her that he can fly and he later teaches her to fly.

She is surprised to find out a bit later that he’s taught some of the other school kids (boys and girls) to fly (I think after he taught her — I think this hurts her feelings).

At one point, she, the boy, and several of the kids are in a meadow (or a park?) and the boy is reclining, snapping at flying bugs in the air — eating them. I think the girl tries one, too. Some of the boy classmates may be showing off, doing daredevil flying stunts.

The kids are youngish, probably pre-adolescent. There is another girl, I don’t remember if she’s been taught to fly but I think she is kind of rejected by the school kids, I think she may come from an unhappy home — I think she’s a loner/outsider.

At one point the boy tells our story-teller that he is that last of his kind and he’s looking for someone to come back with him so he won’t be alone (I don’t think the story is specific about where he comes from). Although she really likes him, and considers it, she loves her family too much to leave (I don’t think she would ever be able to see them again).

Soon after this, she arrives at school one day to find he’s no longer a student there; also, the loner girl has departed and our story-teller realizes the girl has gone with him. She’s kind of sad.

Thanks for any help you can provide,

Poor School but Great Learning Resources

*****

Hi Sars,

I have a book I remember from young adulthood that is absolutely driving me crazy — I’ve tried every combination of Google terms I could think of and come up blank, so I was hoping to throw the question to your readers.

The book is about a young man who has some sort of mystical memory of (or ability to tap into some sort of collective unconsciousness regarding) dragons that existed in ancient times, which he uncovers with the help of his boss’s daughter who is interested in the subject. I remember three pretty specific plot points:

1) The book takes place in the modern world or the very near future. The backdrop involves a constitutional amendment which would allow (I think) the government to take over private companies or resources when needed for national security. The main character works in some kind of industry (steel? electronics?) which vehemently opposes this, and the characters are spending a lot of time campaigning against it, though I seem to recall the political situation having some kind of twist.

2) The main character had some kind of really terrible childhood, perhaps involving outright abandonment by his parents. If I remember correctly, this left him with really severe dental problems and he might have first remembered the dragons when he was under anesthesia.

3) He has sort of a parental relationship with his wealthy boss and I’m fairly certain he’s engaged to one of his daughters, both of whom may or may not have turned out to be evil. But he ends up spending more and more time with one of the boss’s other daughters, the one who is interested in dragons. She’s the down-to-earth tomboy while her sister is more conventionally girly. I keep thinking her name is Theo.

And that’s it. I have no idea whether the dragons plotline actually went anywhere or what, but it’s driving me crazy and I’d love to find it. Thank you!

Katie

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