Forgotten book title and authors

[RyanBergarasTeeth]

Starting a thread for Forgotten book titles feel free to add your own and see if anyone can find it. I will start. When i was at schook we had to read a book and all i remember from it was:
The main character is a boy with older parents who are a bit strange but he doesnt know why. He ends up going to an open day at camebridge uni with said weird parents. Something happens i think one of the professors recognises him which is weird as he has never been and he sees a photo of himself but doesnt know how as he was never there. Eventually he confronts his parents who tell him the truth. They had a son who was killed either sickness or an accident so after he died they had his dna cloned and out into an embryo so his mother gave birth to him the clone of the original son.

Ah🤦‍♀️ I forgot to add that the name is “Family Secrets”. The Good Reads app shows 2698 other books with those words in the title.🤦‍♀️

Oh I have one that I've been searching for for over a decade. Four teenage friends living in New York or Brooklyn in the late 80s. They're grafitti artists and decide to pull off a grand stunt by graffitiing a plane at JFK. They grafitti the word "peace" in 4 different languages. I remember the main character / narrator was a short boy and his friends were a Latina girl who he had a crush on, her boyfriend whose parents were artists and had a massive crazy warehouse apartment and one other kid, I think a boy? It's been driving me insane for years. Help!

daisypond, if it’s not ‘The Guardians’, it could possibly be Futuretrack 5, by Robert Westall.

peachgreen - ‘Of Griffins and Graffiti”, Kate Gilmore.

Here's my other big one:

Twin sisters grow up with their father in American Midwest, he's a farmer. The book is narrated by the tomboyish, unpretty, redheaded twin who always feels inferior to her blonde, popular sister. The narrator is ignored and abused by her sister and father. It ends with the pretty twin marrying an older man who she's pregnant by and being stuck in the small town while the narrator leaves to follow her own path.

@CakeCakeCake21 I did a little more research and I think it’s definitely The Secret Line. First published 1988, reissued in the 1990s. Found a synopsis in an old children’s book reviewing magazine which mentions the stations: Heath, Jungle, Lakeside, Dream Place and Dome

Really vague memories of a book on Jackanory or similar, early 80s.

There was a group of kids, somewhat Blytonesque. They had a bit of a puzzle, a cornerpiece of a 3D jigsaw that made a cube. It has some connection to the foundations of an old house that was now underwater but possibly (I’m not sure about this) was sometimes present as a ghost house.

The only solid memory I have is the kids realising they will have to dissemble and redo the puzzle to fit the last piece in, and the leader character saying “this one was first out, so it has to be last in” and that really bothered me because they’d just end up with the same problem.

It is also possible I dreamt it as a child and misremember it as a real book.

Any faint bells ringing?

Late 70s/early 80s YA novel called - I thought - Pauline or possibly Paula - by an author called Storr or Storey or similar (but not any of the obvious writers of those names).

She's a troubled teenager in 70s London who ends up being taken in by a desperately cool family after befriending their daughter?

Cover was by the same artist as did the 70s Antonia Forests (which is why I picked it up!).

It's been bugging me for 30 odd years.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit

As a child or young teen I read a timeslip type book were the girl was timetravelling between her own time and the Victorian era

I only remember there was an argument between her and her teacher about whether they had wellies in those days

I am pretty sure it wasn't Charlotte Sometimes or A Traveler In Time which fit the idea as they are both the wrong time period.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit, could it be A Stitch in Time by Penelope Lively? I remember loving that book but can't remember if there are any wellingtons in it!

It's 99p on kindle so I think I'm going to have to buy it and find out

RyanBergarasTeeth that's a little bit like the plot of Elizabeth is Missing?

Strong chance noodle I know I read Penelope Lively growing up (runs to Google)

Just read 'Stitch in Time' and she is on holiday - no school. Great book though.

Yes, there was definitely an argument with the teacher about Victorian things, she knew better having been there

House In Norham Gardens is a distinct possibility, though I don't remember the title at all.

I have one, it was read to us in primary school, early eighties, so for a younger audience. It’s about a new girl at school, think she had red hair. She’s very odd and everyone is convinced she is an alien. I can remember she had a dog with hair like chewing gum and drew a picture with purple trees. Any ideas?

Don't think its that one now either

@PurpleCrowbarWhereIsLangCleg I think this is Pauline by Margaret Storey

I have one that's been bugging me for nigh on 37 years! When I was about 8, so mid 80s, I kept trying to read a book I found in the school library selection. It was I think probably an adult / mid teen book maybe as I think I found it quite difficult to get to grips with. Anyway, it was about a young woman who was travelling to go and stay with her boyfriends family who she hadn't met. The boyfriends brother, tall dark handsome Roger, met her at the station and immediately she was very attracted to him although he wasn't that warm to her and as I remember it, he was quite sinister. Would love to read it properly now as an adult.... even at 8 it sparked my attraction to the tall dark handsome stereotype, definitely sealed by Heathcliff during my college years!

@Matildatoldsuchdreadfullies oh. My. Goodness. I know instantly that's the one. Thank you SO much. Did you Google it or remember it?!

@pollyhemlock - that is brilliant, thank you! I have ordered the book already. It seems I was wrong about the friend being a girl, it was a boy, but I did remember the name starting with M!

peachgreen, I had vague memories that the word griffin was in the title. That, and the words puffin plus threw it up on google.

@pollyhemlock oh ffs that is DEFINITELY it & I'd swear I've googled every conceivable combination of Pauline & an author with a name even slightly like Storey.

That is outright bizarre. I think it slipped through a 30 year wormhole into non existence & you've just brought it back . Off to find a copy now...

@PurpleCrowbarWhereIsLangCleg Good luck with that ! Only two copies on Amazon for around £90!

Twin sisters grow up with their father in American Midwest, he's a farmer. The book is narrated by the tomboyish, unpretty, redheaded twin who always feels inferior to her blonde, popular sister. The narrator is ignored and abused by her sister and father. It ends with the pretty twin marrying an older man who she's pregnant by and being stuck in the small town while the narrator leaves to follow her own path.

LlamaPolice, this sounds a bit like Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson.

MoneyforOldTurnips, that is Brother of the More Famous Jack by Barbara Trapido.

@Matildatoldsuchdreadfullies well thank you SO much. You're a hero.