What is this? Have you forgotten the title of your favorite children's book? This is a service to help solve your book mysteries. Submit your memory here, and see if anyone else remembers your book memory, or better yet, knows the title and author!  After all, it's easier to find the book when you know what it's called. I'll post copies for sale when I have them, and am always glad to search for copies not currently in stock.  Loganberry Books is a used bookshop after all, and this page is only a small sideline offered as a service to my customers. Original requests are in bold,  comments and solutions from internet friends are in color.  My comments (HRL/staff) are in black.

How does this work? Book Stumpers should be submitted by clicking the "Book Stumper" link below.  Stumpers cost $2 to submit, and will be posted alphabetically by Keycode until solved. New Stumpers will be on this page for at least four weeks, and are then moved to the archive pages. Once solved, the posting moves to the Solved Mysteries pages, alphabetical by title.  New comments and stumpers are posted on Tuesdays, and whenever else time permits.  The tallies do not reflect solutions made by simply browsing the archives or asking what we deem an "easy question" rather than a "stumper." The 2003 Tally 1192 Stumpers posted; 744 (62%) Solved  The 2004 Tally 527 Stumpers posted; 395 (75%) Solved The 2005 Tally 902 Stumpers posted; 499 (55%) Solved The 2006 Tally 858 Stumpers posted; 401 (46%) Solved The 2007 Tally   853 Stumpers posted; 409 (48%) Solved The 2008 Tally 691 Stumpers posted; 229 Solved (33%) Solved

Updates  A lot of archiving has occurred, so if check to see if your old stumpers have finally been solved! Want to be notified when new stumpers are posted?  Follow us on Twitter @loganberrybooks.    posted 2/16/10        posted 2/23/2010 posted 3/5/2010 posted 3/8/2010 The 2010 Tally   65 Stumpers Posted   62 Moved to Archives last updated 03/08/10

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Children's reader with a story called A Basketful of Laughs (or Laughter) about an old man and wife. He ends up carrying a heavy basket of laundry, and his wife was in it (sleeping?) all along. She wakes up, they laugh, hence the name.  I read it in early 60s in Canada, may have been old then.

Cat & Mouse in Partnership, Bluebeard, Puss in Boots (both illstd by Gustav Dore), The Brave Tin Soldier, The Tinderbox, Why the Sea is Salt, Beauty and the Beast (illstd by Walter Crane), and the Wonderful Tar Baby Story (illustrated by EW Kimble). Lg. book w/ others also-brown/orange/white cover.

Kid's Picture book, read early 1970's. B&W. Prince cursed -> frog. Looks for a wizard to turn him back. Finds visual wizard. Wizard cuts and pastes paper to form a b&w full page 'spell' [re images that swirl etc Incl Black squares & fuzzies at junctions], prince changes form several times.

Ed Emberley, The Wizard of Op. This is your book! some pages of the book have been reproduced.

Emotions banned.  Boy (slow?) with emotions displayed to public; made happy by treats/new goldfish; sad by killing goldfish or mentioning parents. Adult  rescues him but can't deal w/ emotions;  decides gov't is right; returns him and submits to reeducation. Older story.

I'm looking for a book that I read years and years ago. It would have been published in the 60s or 70s...possibly the very early 80s. It was about a fairly newly wed wife whose husband is spending most of his time locked away in...a lab or a basement work place maybe? Anyway, this woman comes to realize that they are reincarnated souls doomed to never find love because in their first encounter centuries before he was cursed by her. I think she was killed, possibly for being accused a witch, but anyway, one of them died before she could forgive him for his betrayal of her. So they went through at least two more lives, coming across each other but with heartbreak until this woman finally figures out what's happened and she forgives him. It's not Green Darkness by Anya Seton. I have that one. And it's not Lady of Hay by Barbara Erskine, although I've read that one since. Any other ideas of what it might be? This has been driving me nuts for years!

In one story, two kids need to write a play.  They enter a house where there are other children.  The house and the other children (ghosts) eventually disappear.st

1970s book.  Kid sleuths in London solve mysteries.  Reader sees full page illustrations and looks for clues.  For one, sleuths must find a secret entrance and careful reader can see a manhole cover was slightly raised and eyes were peering out from under it

Hans Jurgen Press, The Black Hand Gang, 1975, approximate. Could you be looking for The Black Hand Gang?  They're translated from the German, so I don't think they took place in London, but I think the police are drawn to look like bobbies, so someone might remember it that way.  I think there were several titles, most included the word "adventure".

I am looking for a book of fairy tales from late 50s or early 60s with a light green cover.  The story I'm searching for is about a young girl who sees/.follows a group of little men (trolls?) in the woods.  These little men seem to be mesmerized by a camp fire in illustration.

Traditional, The Twelve Month Brothers. I have to say I have no idea what collection you might be remembering, but your description of the illustration reminds me of this traditional story common across Northern Europe and Russia. A mean stepmother sends her good kind stepdaughter out in the middle of a snowstorm to bring back strawberries. Wandering in the woods, she comes across a campfire surrounded by 12 brothers. She realizes they are the 12 months. she is very polite to them, and they offer to help her out, so June presents her with the berries and they send her home safe. When the stepmother sees her good fortune, she sends her own daughter out into the blizzard, but she is rude and mean to the months, and they send her out to freeze to death in the snow. The stepmother also freezes when she goes looking for her daughter, and a happy ending for all! The story has been published on its own, and also turns up in many collections. If the story rings a bell, maybe you can find the collection...

I read this book in 1961-2 while I was attending third grade in California. For some reason, the story really struck me – I must have read it 30+ times, and the librarian finally told me I couldn’t check it out anymore. Buying a copy was beyond my family’s means.Unfortunately, I don’t remember the title or author. In form, I think it would qualify as a juvenile ‘novel’ – it included some line illustrations but was mostly text. It was published in hardback and had (I think) an illustrated cover with the horse’s profile figuring prominently. I don’t remember the book being heavily used (by anyone but me, that is) so I expect it was written sometime after 1955. The story traced the life of a racehorse and focused on the relationship between him and his trainer or a stable boy. After a long and successful career, the horse was about to stop racing but then was called back to run one more time for a prize to fund a retirement home for race horses. He won, of course.  That’s as much as I can remember. Thanks to you and the other Book Stumper contributors!

Better Homes & Gardens Story Book, copyright. See Anthologies or Most Requested.  The Goops, the Little Red Hen with pictures substituting for words -- these are in there!

Most likely Better Homes and Gardens Storybook, volume 1. See Solved Mysteries AND, especially, the Anthology Finder for the cover and contents.

http://logan.com/harriett/most-anthologies.html What tipped me off was the bit about the Little Red Hen - it's something of a rebus, but not as complicated as some rebuses.

Better Homes and Gardens Storybook.

Children find an old castle in the woods. Later, the whole village has a festival in the shadow of the castle. Children's picture book with story, approx 5th grade level, poss. 1980s. Animal characters? Possibly part of a series that had a map in the front of the book of the village they lived in.

Additional details: The book was thin, maybe 30 pages. The book was a picture book with words, very richly illustrated.

R227: Robin Finds a Home
Male Robin arrives in a neighborhood after migrating north and checks out various types of trees, eventually selecting a nest site outside the window of a house. His mate arrives and they raise a family. The title might be Mr. Robin Finds a Home.

Orton, Helen Fuller, Mystery in the Pirate Oak, 1964, approximate. I loved this book as a child and my daughter and I just recently read my old paperback copy together. I believe the elderly woman was a neighbor, not the grandmother, but the details about the tree and the storm are correct. The box contained a rare and valuable postmaster's stamp.

Helen Fuller Orton, MYSTERY IN THE PIRATE OAK, 1954, and republished later. This is definitely MYSTERY IN THE PIRATE OAK by Helen Fuller Orton, 1949 and published later by Scholastic Book Club.~from a librarian

Town in snow globe A book I had in the 1950s, all I remember is a town that seemed to be inside a snow globe. i think it might have been a collection of stories.

Trying to remember a book that has at least 3 stories in it, one dealing with ghosts, one with astral projection and one of remedies given while in a state of hypnosis. To give more information on this, as I thought I'd be able to do it after the transaction: In this book there were three distinct stories that I recall.  There may have been more, but I can only remember three of them. I'll describe them as I remember them and not sure in what order they were in the book.
First story:
This couple was on a trip, driving a long distance and for some reason had to come to stop.  They sought help from a couple living in a house and the couple living there were very friendly and welcoming.  The traveling couple stayed the night and were very thankful for the kindness offered to them.  After they managed to get back on their way, they stopped at a town nearby (for gas and a few snacks I guess) and told the clerk about the couple they met.  When they described where the couple lived, the clerk told them that wasn't possible because no one had lived there for a number of years.  Baffled, they went back to that house only to find that it was in ruins, unlike before while they were visiting there.
Second story:
This kid had this uncanny ability to give recipes for curing ailments and illnesses when he would go into a trance/state of hypnosis.  As I recall, it was discovered by accident when something happened to the kid and he slipped out of consciousness and started talking to his father.  Part of what he said was to hurry before it'd be too late to save him (the kid).  The father did as instructed and his son recovered.  After that they came to realize that he was able to recite remedies for unusual or seemingly fatal situations.
Third story:
This was the longest in the book I believe.  It started off with this guy committing a crime and ending up in jail/prison.  While in there he ended up in a deep dungeon (or some sort of solitary confinement or something) and was abused by the warden.  After being in there awhile, he started to experience astral projection.  One of the times he did it, he had looked in on his neighboring cellmate (whom he had talked with through the wall) and saw a bad aura surrounding him (ie, was a bad person on the inside).  He eventually started visiting this girl for reasons unknown to him and surprisingly she could see him (and was the only one who could).  They became friends of sorts, with him visiting her at different times, like one time while she was at school.  As time went on, he stopped but had somehow learned a bit of his future.  He even told the warden what the future held, which included his being freed from the dungeon and eventually set free altogether.  This happened because an official took interest in his case and after investigating everything had determined that he had been abused and that while he may have been guilty of a crime, his punishment was excessive and pushed for his released.  Once released, he happened upon a girl and almost instantly (or very quickly) they both recognized each other - it was the girl he had been seeing during his projections.
I had read this book in the 1980's and believe it may have been a book supplied by Scholastic, but I'm not 100% certain of that.  I just know it was the mid 1980's that I had read it and I have a feeling the book had originally been released a number of years before (perhaps being reprinted).  During the past few years, I have been racking my brain trying to think of a way to look up this book to no avail.  I don't really have enough to be able to narrow it down from to a reasonable list from all the infinite books that are out there, so I have to hope that someone else remembers this book and has additional information (author, word in the title, title itself, more stories in the book, first release, etc).  If this book can be named, I might be able to buy a copy and that would be simply wonderful.

This isn't much help but the second story you mention has some similarities to Edgar Cayce's early life.  

Upon asking around, I have since learned that the first story is titled, "The Guests" and has appeared in a book named "Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark" (978-0064401708).  However, it doesn't look like the other two stories are in that same book.  So finding other books with "The Guests" in it may find the book I'm looking for.

S663: 70's teen romance, sailing, country club, class boundaries

Book I read in early 70's, young teen romance, heroine lived near the coast (new england area) and was a charity sailor, but exceptional, and it put her in society she didn't know how to handle (like a country club dance).   Made me long to sail.  Hero didn't see class distinctions, fell for her.

Published before 1980.  Two children find a tombstone and think its a person.   Later find out its a racehorse.  Setting near the ocean...find out what mussels and cockles are.  Something about a mirror and a ribbon hidden behind it.  Wish I had more to go on.

Robert E. Barry, The Riddle of Castle Hill. It's THE RIDDLE OF CASTLE HILL by Robert E. Barry~from a librarian

Does anyone know the name of the children's book where a boy loves to read and everyone in his alternate universe is trying to get him to watch television instead? I remember portions where teachers tried to make the book act like TV-get up for a minute, and he's missed portions, etc.

A book for young adults that I read in the mid 1970s.  May have been a book ordered through school.  The plot involves siblings (maybe cousins) who live in England and are orphans.  They are under the guardianship of some not so nice people and the children discover that time is not a straight line but circular like a wagon wheel and there are times when the two circles can connect.  I seem to remember that at the end of the book the children find that they are no longer orphaned. There was a character who was called sneakin' Meakin'.  She was a servant type who looked after the children but was not a good person

Looking for a small 5x5 hardcover children's book possibly from the '40s, possibly entitled, What's Done is Done. A boy would do different tasks for a farmer or woodsman, but would do it wrong or wreck everthing and the man would simply reply, What's done is done. Woodblock type illustrations.

Stump the Bookseller Archives Current stumpers are on this page (scroll down!). Follow these links for the archives. New AB CD EF GH IJ KL MN OP QR S T UVW XYZ

Solved Mysteries Catalog A B C D EF G H IJ K L M N O P QR S T UV W XYZ

Search Loganberry's Website! Return pages containing ALL ANY   of these words:

How to Send in Contributions   Book Request Book Stumper Solution e-mail