I read 2-3 hardbacks books by the same author in the mid-70s. They were in a middle school library. The author’s last name was near the beginning of the alphabet (A-G). All I remember about them is that one, at least, was about a young boy and his experiences on a boat. He may have had a male friend. I want to say that at least one had “Diver” in the title, but this may not be true. The words “Pearl” or “Tiger” may have appeared as well.
I know that’s not much to go on, but maybe someone knows what I’m talking about!
Seems like a long shot, but I have a vague thought you could be referring to C.S. Lewis’s Voyage of the Dawn Treader from the Chronicles of Narnia series. It doesn’t really fit most of your recollections, but it seems like a really likely candidate for a hardback series being in a school library around that time. The Lion=Tiger and Silver=Pearl similarities could be it…but not likely. Plus, really, I’m sure you wouldn’t need help remembering C.S Lewis. Just ignore me.
I’m pretty sure you are thinking of Scott O’Dell. He had one called The Black Pearl, which was about a boy trying to find a rare pearl from an undersea cave (if I’m remembering the plot correctly).
ETA: He also had one called Island of the Blue Dolphins…could it have been dolphins, not sharks?
Not Judy Blume, who writes what I’d call “domestic” middle reader/young adult fiction, mostly about relationships. Tiger Eyes was also published several years too late. However, I do think the author’s name may have started with a “B” since I think I read the books just before I read the John Christopher tripod trilogy and *Catcher with a Glass Arm * by Matt Christopher. I was working my way through fiction alphabetically by author (I got to “M” before I graduated).
Shoshana, I do have one suggestion for you. A few years back, I was trying to remember the name of a YA mystery I had read, and the only word I could think of was “crimson.” I searched that word on amazon, and went through all the books that came up. Sure enough, I found it. Your words are pretty common, so you probably would get a ton of listings, but if you search just in the YA listings, you might find it.
I’ve been working on it on Amazon, Google Books, and Worldcat, but so far no luck. It may be because I’m mixing two titles together, or there’s a character named “Tiger” but it’s not in the title, or something of that sort. I might do best to find an old librarian.
I thought sure that was it, but try searching here: Loganberry Books. They’ve been good to me when it comes to finding half-remembered childrens books.
Just had to say that tho I had never heard of The Black Pearl, when I read the OP for whatever reason I thought of Island of the Blue Dolphins. I remember that being one of my fave books in grade school. Read it several times.
I’d like to read it again these days to see why it made an impression on me.
I saw the movie when I was in school. The girl was Native American, Chumash, I think. She was stranded on an island off the coast of California when the conquistadores forced the girl’s fellow tribe members off the island and into servitude at one of the missions. She was left behind when she went to go get her little brother and the boat left without them. The brother died not long afterward, and she was left to her own devices on that island for the next 18 years.