# YA book identification **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 6, 2006, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ya-book-identification/379297 "2006-11-06T15:17:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![davenportavenger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f8ce5/32.png) [@davenportavenger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davenportavenger)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ya-book-identification/379297/1 "2006-11-06T15:17:52Z")
I’ve been wanting to go back and read some books from my childhood. No real reason, I just need a break from the type of stuff I usually read. There are two books that I remember owning but I can’t remember their names or authors. Anyone want to help? Book one: It was about a crazy cat lady and this young boy that befriends her. I think the cover had a picture of a cat on it, naturally. It took place in a city. At the end either the boy or the boy’s friend steps or sits on one of her cats, almost killing it, and the CCL takes the almost dead cat and throws it away. I remember being very disturbed by this. Book two: This one was about a girl living with foster parents. She made up crazy stories and then had to prove them, like I think she said she got her head cut off and had to get it stitched back on, so when people called her on it she got a fake scar to put around her neck. She runs for student body president and wins. I think there was a sibling character in the book, too. I mostly just remember this one from the scar thing. Thanks in advance! ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ya-book-identification/379297/2 "2006-11-06T19:02:37Z")
Yeesh! I hope you’re wrong about how that first one went. I can’t answer your questions, but [this](http://loganberrybooks.com/default.html) site is a good place to start trying to find partially-remembered kids’ books. ---
**Author:** ![davenportavenger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f8ce5/32.png) [@davenportavenger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davenportavenger)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ya-book-identification/379297/3 "2006-11-06T19:31:14Z")
Thanks, figured out the second based on that site, it was Heads I Win by Patricia Hermes. It also, now that I’m reading the reviews of it, had a subplot that involved frozen macaroni which confused me as a kid because I didn’t know there was such a thing. Still wondering about the first. I told some people about that book over the weekend and they said I had to be making it up, there is no way they’d put that ending in a YA book. But I picture that dead kitten scene so perfectly, I know it’s real. ---
**Author:** ![davenportavenger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f8ce5/32.png) [@davenportavenger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davenportavenger)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2006, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ya-book-identification/379297/4 "2006-11-09T18:44:38Z")
Just bumping this one more time in case anyone knows the first book and didn’t see it the first time! ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2006, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ya-book-identification/379297/5 "2006-11-09T19:03:22Z")
Could it be **It’s Like This, Cat** , by Emily Cheney Neville? I seem to remember that the kid in the story got his cat from a peculiar “cat lady” who lived nearby. ---
**Author:** ![davenportavenger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f8ce5/32.png) [@davenportavenger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davenportavenger)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2006, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ya-book-identification/379297/6 "2006-11-09T20:32:10Z")
That’s it! I went to Amazon and recognized the cover, as well as the name of the cat lady. I’m ordering it from the library now to show that scene to people. Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2006, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ya-book-identification/379297/7 "2006-11-09T20:37:34Z")
I think I’m going to get it from my library, too. I gotta read that dead cat thing…