To ask you all to help me remember the name of this book?

[ICameOnTheJitney]

I read it WAY back in the late eighties or very early 90s...it was in the guise of those Sweet Valley High books but not one of them.

It was about a teenage girl living in London in the last year of school...as I remember, her Mum wanted her to stay at school and she wanted to be a fashion designer and get a job...she dyes her hair pink...and on the cover was a photograph of a young woman with pink hair dreamily looking into the future...sitting on some grass in the city I think.

And she gets a job in a naff clothing factory as an assistant...it's run by a foreign man and he gives her a chance and she's making the tea and things but is really happy.

I think the title MAY have had "Summer" in it...

Bump!

No idea what it is Jitney, sorry, but it sounds...gripping

Lol It was a dreadful little book. But at the time...aged about 14 or 15 I thought it was FAB!

I think I read that - can't remember the name though sorry!

I remember reading one about some girls who were on a boat trip and ended up stranded on an island and one girl painted a shell for each day they were there. I think there was a sequel to that one.

And one with I must I must increase my bust in it.

judy bloom duckie, excellent when a teenage girl!! anyone ese used to read them?

Try looking on fantasticfiction.com

Sounds familiar to me to but can't get the name. I loved Judy Blume "are you there god it's me Margaret" lol.

This was nowhere near as good as a Judy Blume...it was cheapo fiction of the kind that is MEANT to disappear from memory but something about it stuck...it was a little different what with her having pink hair etc. Back then, there wasn't much good teen fiction about that was modern.

At around twelve/thirteen I read "A Girl of the Limberlost" I loved it at the time

I could not remember the title of the book but after many tries putting in random words into google I found the right book,downloaded and read it again after so many years. Tells me soooo much about whom I was at that age.

No idea I'm afraid but I do know what you mean about cheapo fiction that somehow makes an impression. I had a book of short stories that came with a copy of Just Seventeen and somehow the plots have burned themselves into my brain.

This is no help at all but I am going ad trying to find a book I read years ago it had the verses of Leonard Cohens Suzanne running through the story. If anyone recognises it I will be eternally grate full.

growingbytheday Was is Dave's Song by Robert McKay?

Don't know what it is, sorry but the only thing I can think of when you say 'in the guise of Sweet Valley books' is the Sweet Dreams series. It wasn't one of those books was it?!

Melanie was the book of short stories the spooky collection that included the tarot cards that linked to secrets the characters were hiding and the one about the ghost of a boyfriend saving his girlfriend from falling off a cliff?

OP, I know how frustrating it is. Hope someone can help you out soon.

The ABE Booksleuth forum might be helpful - forums.abebooks.co.uk/discussions/AbeBookscouk_BookSleuth/abesleuthuk?redirCnt=1&=

Good luck - I know that feeling; like it's on the tip of your tongue....

Is it an early Jacqueline Wilson? It sounds familiar. Or Jean Ure?

Thanks guys....I'm sure it was set in London....she might have had a boyfriend too...and he was an apprentice something or other. I remeber how the image on the cover appealed to me...this dreamy looking, pink haired girl in London....lol the things we like as teens!

I also remember a short story from a copy of Just 17 about a girl who dressed up and went out to the fair alone...it was a dark sort of tale for teens but it really appealed. She wore a black hat and "shoes that would click as she walked" She goes to the fair and flirts and then leaves the guys she meets on their own all mysterious.

It definitely sounds like one of the Sweet Dreams books.

I remember the J17 story too. The denouement was that the slinkily-dressed teenager with the gag and the clicky shoes was a boy!

HAT, not gag. Typo makes it sound as if the story should have been in Razzle!!

There's a babysitters club booked ingrained in my memory, one of the girls looked after a girl with autism. Can't remember the name.

Good luck in your quest!

Fiana it WAS wasn't it! Omg! I forgot that part!

finance not Fiana

thenumberseven thank you soo much! I remember the story of Limberlost from when I was a child, couldn't remember the name! It has been bugging me do you see what I did there?

Duckie, the girls stranded on an island- was that girls rule or something? It's bugging me now! Did one of them step on a sea urchin?

did anyone ever read lois duncan? i know what you did last summer. the eyes of karen connors. and another one about twins who could swap soles by having out of body experiences? they were great books!