This HaBO request is from Sarah (not our Sarah!), who wants to find a young adult book:
This was a YA title, I think.
I was a teen when I read it, so it was sometime in the 90’s or earlier. Not a lot of crazy, stand-out-in-my-mind details, but it was a friends-to-possibly-something-more, coming of age story.
The heroine had a total crush on her guy friend, but she was overweight and he was a runner (potentially with a girlfriend at one point).
Here’s why I remember it: The heroine had a super relationship with her grandmother. who I remember as being incredibly supportive and who told her own HEA story about going into a stationery shop and buying a pencil from the grandfather. This was super important because while the heroine is is having teenage love story angst (in a relatively non dramatic way), her family is going through the process of the grandmother’s decline and (sorry to spoil this) death.
I can probably write one of the last scenes almost word for word, but I can’t remember the title or author at all. I’m pretty sure it’s set in NYC or at least an east coast city.
Is anyone else getting a little misty-eyed?
This sounds really sweet. Fingers crossed someone finds it.
Argh!! I’ve read this book! I don’t remember what it was called, but I remember the pencil story!
Sounds like Staying fat for Sarah Byrnes by Chris Crutcher, but the guy is a swimmer, not runner.
Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes is an incredible story, well worth the read. I don’t remember anything about her grandmother, though it’s been years since I read it. I’m also pretty sure it was written in his viewpoint, so I don’t know that you’d know she had a crush on him, if she did. She wasn’t fat, but rather scarred. He had been fat but lost weight, and I think they were just friends.
The guy was definitely a runner in this book, but he had a runner’s build throughout the book.
I also remember when the heroine’s friend start noticing she’s changing. They can’t see her socks because her pants are looser now and are hanging down.
I remember details but not the title or author….
Do you recall any other details: anything distinctive about the heroine’s friends or crush? Do you remember any cover art details? Was this part of the popular teen romance publishers at the time like Sweet Dreams or First Love from Silhouette?
Also if you can quote the last scene here it might help with searching.
This sounds dimly familiar. Was the cover people sitting on the front stoop of a house?