SOLVED. YA '78-'80? Boy & Girl (not related) run away--use codewords. [s]

[Kayleen]

I am looking for a book I read in the late 70s-early 80s. I was really into the teen survival/kids on their own type of stories. (Walking Out, My Side of the Mountain, Z for Zachariah...even the boxcar children) It would have been along those lines.

There were a boy and a girl that were not related and did not live together. One of them (the girl I think) lived with a mean old lady (aunt??). While they plotted their escape in the first chapter or two, one would call the other's home. Of course, old mean aunt would always answer the phone so the kids used codewords, pretending to have a wrong number. If it was safe to meet they'd use the word "green" (i.e. "Is this the City Greenhouse?") and if it wasn't they'd use the word "red" ("Hello, is this the Redmond residence?")

I have been trying for years to figure out what this book was. It was most likely a cheap mass paperback on one of the school book lists (Scholastic, Apple, etc.)

[Kayleen]

Nearly a year later and I'm still searching. Do you know of a website that lists Scholastic books by year? I'm thinking it was a short-lived paperback and I know it came thru one of those school book companies.
The story of the book, as I remember it, is a lot like My Side of the Mountain, except that there were two of them at the outset. They ran away to the wilderness.

[Lisa]

Jegka, I'm glad you bumped this up so it might get some attention from newer members.

You could always also try contacting them:

http://www.scholastic.com/

[Luann]

A couple of people on Flickr have scanned and posted book covers from old Scholastic books. Looking through them was like a blast from the past! Books I vividly remembered, but hadn't thought of for years and still need to add to my list. Also, books I'd never seen before and wondered how I missed when I was younger. Anyhow, they might help - even though they aren't listed by year or any sort of order like that, as far as I can tell:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jl-incro...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brentcox...

[Nancy]

You can search books by publisher, audience age, fiction/non-fiction, and date on WorldCat. It includes books out of print. In many cases a brief description is included.

[Kayleen]

WorldCat is great, but I still didn't have any luck. I'm thinking now it's not a scholastic. Who else published cheap paperbacks for schools in the late 80s? I know I read it between '79-'81. I found a list of YA books published in '73-'76 and '79-'82, so I think the book was published in '77-'78. It probably didn't win any awards or it would still be around.

Again, a boy and girl, not related, make intricate plans to run away together from their respective homes. The girl, at least, is not living with her parents. Orphan maybe? It was contemporary, not historic fiction.
I am stumped.

[Alycia]

Troll was a fairly large publisher to that market up to several years ago. I seem to recall them as far back as the mid-seventies when I was in elementary school.

As far as I know, Troll was acquired by Scholastic maybe 7 years ago.

[Chorine]

Wasn't there a book called Sand Ponies about a girl and a boy who run away together?

[Kayleen]

Thanks, Chorine, but in Sand Ponies they were brother and sister.

I am sifting through Troll books now. Thanks for the lead.

[HeavyReader]

I looked at the links Luann posted. The second one doesn't work any more, but the first one is FABULOUS! So many awesome book covers. Back covers are included too (if you click on the image of the front cover), so you can actually learn a little about the book.

Too bad that second one doesn't work...

[D.M.]

This might be Coming Back Alive by Dennis Reader:

"Yellow was the codeword for drop rendezvous, and was a rough one to drop into a name. Dylan once tried Yellowfin, which stood for a type of tuna I think. Red meant extreme emergency-call him."

There's a review online, but whoever wrote it has an odd, garbled style. A synopsis is that Bridget's mom and dad died in an accident, and Dylan's have divorced. Bridget's Aunt Charlene wants to sell the parent's house and move, and the two escape to the Trinity mountains in Cali to survive rough in the woods. Garbled review is at https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-re...

[Kayleen]

The name doesn't mean anything to me, but that sounds really close. I've ordered it from the library to check it out.
Thanks, Dmdutcher!!

[D.M.]

No problem, I hope it's the one.

[Kayleen]

Yes, yes, yes!!!! That was it!
Thanks SO MUCH! I've been looking for more than 10 years, on mulitple sites.
Funny, the part I remembered so vividly was only half a page out of the 250. No wonder I had such a hard time finding it.

[D.M.]

That's great we could finally track it down for you. Sometimes just a single vivid image is enough to keep the memory of an old book alive. I'm glad to be able to give you a name to that memory.

[Rainbowheart]

Coming Back Alive for the link.