The Vine: November 18, 2011
I’ve tried for years to find a YA book that I read and owned back in the late ’80s/early ’90s but I can’t find anything on the interwebs. So now I turn to you and “The Nation” for help.
As I said, the book is from the Young Adult genre, probably published some time around 1989 or 1990. The writing style is similar to Julian F. Thompson or Robert Cormier, but it’s not really what I would consider a thriller.
What I can briefly remember is that it’s about a teenage girl who is dealing with some crisis at home (Divorce? A parent’s death?) and has an older friend/boyfriend who’s fed up with everything that’s going on in the world/government/his family, and decides to live off the grid in the woods in a cave near this suburban city. The teen girl makes a decision to go with him and most of the book’s plot revolves around her struggle with this decision to cut herself off from all that she knew before.
The cover of the paperback copy I had was a drawing of the teen girl; long dark hair with maybe bangs, blue eyes. Wearing a red tee-shirt, with possibly a backpack over one shoulder?
I’m sure it’s out of print by now, but I’ve had luck in the past finding copies of out-of-print books online and I’m hoping to do the same with this book. If I could only remember the dang title.
Anything that you or your readers could do would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Kitty
*****
So the book I am looking for is one I read before I turned 12, so published before 1986. It was the story about a boy who becomes apprentice to a wizard. Did the boy meet him when the magician was doing magic tricks? In a tavern or something? And there was a woods and a magic animal? I can’t remember but I do remember loving the story. Sorry to give you so little to go on. Many thanks in advance!
AK
Tags: Ask The Readers Julian F. Thompson popcult Robert Cormier
I thought Kitty’s question sounded really familiar — didn’t it get answered here a couple of weeks ago?
https://tomatonation.com/vine/the-vine-november-4-2011/
Wasn’t the first one featured on the Vine a couple of weeks ago? I think it was determined that this one is On the Far Side of The Mountain by Jean Craighead George, right?
Is it just me or has the first question from Kitty already been posted here?
Yes it did! On Nov. 4th…but looks like only a couple of people had a suggestion as to what the book was so maybe a second run will help!
The second one made me think of ‘The Castle in the Attic’ by Elizabeth Winthrop. It was published in 1986, and there is a bit about a magician and the boy learns some tricks from him to get away from an evil king (obviously), but the main story involves the boy and his family’s housekeeper magically ending up in the world of the toy castle she gave him, and their struggles to get back home. So, maybe not what AK is looking for, but one of my favorites as a kid!
HA! It totally was. You’d think the Cormier reference would have looked familiar to me…oh well. Sorry, guys! Let’s see what we come up with this time around…and apologies for the unintended rerun there.
The first book sounds like “On the Far Side of the Mountain” by Jean Craighead George. A teen girl joins her brother living in the forest, and a paperback version showed the girl in a red tee shirt http://www.tower.com/on-far-side-mountain-jean-craighead-george-paperback/wapi/100532338
For whatever reason, the second book makes me think of “The Black Cauldron”.
First, thanks Sars, for printing my inquiry twice. Even if it wasn’t intentional, I feel very special.
However, I’m sad to say that the book that I’m looking for is NOT On The Far Side of the Mountain.
The book I’m talking about is much darker in tone and subject. And the two protagonists are definitely not brother and sister. They have a sexual relationship towards the end of the novel.
It was a nice try though; I appreciate your suggestions. Two weeks ago I had to clear out my father’s storage unit and in it I found a box of my old books.
The minute I opened it and saw my old copy of The Grounding of Group Six staring up at me I thought for sure I’d had my wish granted and somehow this mystery book was buried inside the box somewhere. Alas, it wasn’t in there.
Darn, maybe this thing will continue to elude me forever.
A maybe on Kitty’s book: The Goats by Brock Cole.
http://www.librarything.com/work/227341
The second made me think of Craig Shaw-Gardner’s “Ebenezum” and “Wuntvor” series. The first two came out in 1986:
A Malady of Magicks (1986)
A Multitude of Monsters (1986)
A Night in the Netherhells (1987)
A Difficulty with Dwarves (1987)
An Excess of Enchantments (1988)
A Disagreement with Death (1989)
Nope, it isn’t The Goats either, but I had totally forgot how much I liked that book too. I borrowed it from my little cousin a few years ago.
Thanks, and I appreciate the suggestions. I just know The Nation will help me figure this out!
AK’s book sounds a lot like Mairelon the Magician by Patricia C. Wrede. The protagonist, Kit, is a girl disguised as boy, and she meets Mairelon when she’s hired to steal from his wagon. It’s set in England’s Regency period. It wasn’t published until 1991, however.
http://pcwrede.com/MagicandMalice.html
It’s a *really* long shot, and none of the covers I find online seem to be right, but could the first one be Ursula LeGuin’s “The Beginning Place?”
No help on the first one, but I had to chime in with the rush of Proustian memories about Grounding of Group 6.
Damn, that book knocked me off kilter! It was the first book I’d read written for my age group that had swearing and drinking and TEH SEX presented in a non-judgemental way, and the story was imprinted on my brain forevermore. I brought it to my junior high school, loaned it to someone, and it was passed around from there. It took me months to get it back and the cover was missing by the time I did.
@CindyP: I actually thought of LeGuin too, but as I remember that one (it’s been a while), it ends with them going back to the “real” world and learning how to be adults.
Could the second question be referring to this short story, found in the collection Faery Reel: Immersed in Matter by Nina Kiriki Hoffman?
I was also thinking of Mairelion, but that’s a girl. Maybe one of the Diana Wynne Jones books, especially the Chrestomanci books?
@Kitty – wow, The Grounding of Group Six brings back all kinds of memories of being so creeped out, but HAVING to stay awake until all hours to finish that book. Sometimes I’m amazed at the things my parents didn’t know I was reading!
Wow! So many results! Thank you all so much – I’m not certain of the title of the book I am looking for but I am off to goodreads now to check theses ones and order them from the library. I appreciate all your suggestions!
Cat_slave, it’s been a while for me too…I have stronger memories of the purchase of the book than of the book (except for that really creepy part I won’t spoil, but…shudder). I was passing through the airport in American Samoa in the early 1980s and found it there and bought it to read on the plane, thinking I’d pass it on to my little sister after I was done, until I got to the sex-related parts and realized sis (then at the eew-gross phase) would NOT appreciate the book yet. A couple of days later, my brother passed through the same airport, bought the book thinking he’d pass it on to sis later, then realized she wouldn’t like it…sometimes bro and I are eerily on the same wavelength!
Sorry CindyP, The Beginning Place isn’t the book either. Thanks for trying to help though.
On a whim I re-read The Grounding of Group Six over the weekend and it was just as great as I remembered back when I was 16.
This is probably not it, but I thought I’d throw it out there just in case! http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Thing-Jean-Renvoize/dp/B000HW2Y3C She doesn’t follow a boy, though–the boy comes later. But, time can distort memory, so I thought I’d mention it.
Now I want to read The Grounding of Group 6! I’ve been on a retro YA kick lately anyway…..
The Grounding of Group 6 just came out as an ebook, at the Kindle store at Amazon.com