Best of
Young-Adult

1962

Light a Single Candle


Beverly Butler - 1962
    Adjusting to blindness was often easier than handling the reactions of people. One friend who now avoided her her. Another smothered her with too much kindness. Then came the thrill of independence after completing a tough training course with Trudy, her wonderful new guide dog. With her new freedom of movement, Cathy accepted the challenge of going back to public high school. "This book was written by an author who is herself blind, the narrative has the ring of authenticity and is moving without being sentimental or romanticized..."- A.L.A. Booklist

Mystery of the Haunted Mine


Gordon D. Shirreffs - 1962
    The Indians say it is guarded by ghosts...but Gary and Tuck refuse to believe that ghosts use live ammunition.

A Wrinkle in Time


Madeleine L'Engle - 1962
    It was a dark and stormy night.Out of this wild night, a strange visitor comes to the Murry house and beckons Meg, her brother Charles Wallace, and their friend Calvin O'Keefe on a most dangerous and extraordinary adventure—one that will threaten their lives and our universe.Winner of the 1963 Newbery Medal, A Wrinkle in Time is the first book in Madeleine L'Engle's classic Time Quintet.

Torpedo Run


Robb White - 1962
    Navy PT boat, the Slewfoot, is off the coast of New Guinea during World War II. The new captain can only operate "by the book" which causes deep resentment and even mutiny, resulting in a test of wills.

A Girl Called Chris


Marg Nelson - 1962
    Unable to get a scholarship for college despite stellar grades, Chris unwillingly takes a summer job at the local cannery, hoping to make enough money to pay for her tuition.

Sparrow Lake


Carol Beach York - 1962
     My room faced the lake, and from my window at night I could see the Lodge lights and all the black, tall forms of the trees and closed-for-the-winter houses. How many times I sat by my windows and looked out, watching snow fall, thinking about Johnny Hunter. How many times.....I cannot hope to count them all.

A Topsy-Turvy Planet


Nikolai Sladkov - 1962
    FROM THE BACK COVER Perhaps you would like to know how "A Topsy-Turvy Planet" came to be written. Well, it was this way: The launching of the first manned spaceship fired all our youngsters with the ambition to be astronauts. And who could blame them? There's such a thrill about the very words - stars, rockets, weightlessness. And the prospect of swimming in air as you do in water, even head down if you so please. And all the surprises sure to be waiting for you on those distant planets - all the extraordinary beasts, and birds, and plants, and landscapes, so different from all that we are accustomed to seeing here on Earth. But - I reflected - is not our own Earth rich in extraordinary beasts, and birds, and plants, and landscapes? And in the most amazing of adventures, too? Was it not here that Baron Munchausen and Tartarin of Tarascon performed their incredible exploits? And both Munchausen and Tartarin pale before my good friend Paramon, whose stories - and the name Paramon, I would have you know, means Firm and Reliable - whose stories are so fascinating that not even a ticket to the films, not even the most exciting of TV programmes can tear the youngsters away when he gets to talking. And so I decided to put some of these stories of Paramon's into a book, for all the youngsters to read; because I, too, like Paramon, am convinced that nowhere in creation can you find more beautiful, more amazing, more interesting a planet than our own Earth. Perhaps it is just that I have never visited outer space, not even in my dreams, that makes me feel that way about it. Or, perhaps, it is simply the deep love I bear to this Earth we live on, to its familiar - and unfamiliar - seas and mountains, forests and plains, birds and beasts. All the books I have written - fifteen of them - are devoted to Nature as we find her here on Earth. There's one about hunters after bird songs; another about mountain trails that lead no one knows where; a third about what you can see out of the corners of your eyes; a fourth about friendship among birds; a fifth about ten used cartridge cases and the memories each of them holds fresh for the hunter. You'll know these books if you come across them, for their titles reveal their content: "Hunting Bird Songs," "Nameless Trail," "Out of the Corners of Your Eyes," "Bird Friendship," and "Ten Used Cartridges." The remaining ten are of the same type. So much for my books. As to my own life story, there's no room left for that. Some other time, perhaps. N. SLADKOV

Great Heart


C.W. Anderson - 1962
    in case he doesn’t do well, but the horse is a natural jumper and wins even when Dan has to ride with a broken arm.

First Woman Ambulance Surgeon: Emily Barringer


Iris Noble - 1962
    For Emily Barringer, a slender, attractive woman in her mid-twenties, the appointment was the climax to eight years of diligent study and sacrifice. She had no way of knowing that it also marked the beginning of what was to become a trying ordeal.