Category Archives: 1980s

374K: Hell is hilarious

Fiction, American, published late 70s or early 80s, set in Boston, about an alcoholic violinist and his inept love life. Very funny book. Many hilarious descriptions of Boston’s weather, generally framing it as the output of God’s ass. Anyone know the book or author I am talking about?

374A: Groundhog Day (Solved!)

I’m looking for a kid’s book likely from the 70’s to early 80’s about a groundhog whose friends didn’t want him to see his shadow so they brought him food when he woke up to keep him in his bed. They emptied all the surrounding gardens but he was still hungry. He wanted to leave his den to get more food but they tried to keep him in. When he asked them why he couldn’t leave they told him they did not want him to see his shadow. After this he informs them that ground hog day was yesterday and he’d slept through it. I have looked for this book for years, even when I was a school librarian for a little while and haven’t been able to locate it. My mom doesn’t remember the name of it but does remember that we had it.Thank you for any help you can give for this.

373U: Vintage Picture Book, Kitten cleans room to find rain gear so he can play in the rain with his friends

Kitten wants to play in the rain with two friends, but he has to clean his room to find his rain gear, which includes, boots, hat, jacket. His friends check in on him and help him clean, they even find a sail boat that they can play with in the puddles. The book is NOT the obvious Three Kittens, Rainy-Day Kitten, etc. . . been searching for years now. I think it was published sometime between 1940s-1990s, And I want to say it had a beige/yellow/tan cover with a spot illustration.

373R: Wizard with a floating kettle

I read a book in the 1980s, or possibly even very early 1990s, but the book may have been published long before then. All I remember about it is that there is a scene where a tea kettle is hovering behind a wizard, and the wizard says something about it keeping the water “just at the boil”. I think the character who stumbles upon this wizard becomes his apprentice, or the two travel together, or something, and I believe the sorcerer/wizard/whatever he was is in a clearing in a forest. Formulaic, I know, could be describing a hundred fantasy books – except for that teapot that is consistently at the boiling point! Help?

372V: A staying-up-late book

I would’ve read this picture book in the 80s or maybe early 90s but it could have been from earlier too. It was about a little girl (not sure if she was a human girl or an animal like Frances, etc) who thinks her parents (and sister?) have a party after she goes to bed each night. She finally convinces them to let her stay up and it’s fun and I think they maybe eat toast?
It is not a Frances book, it’s not “I Hate to go to Bed”, and it’s not “Amy’s Long Night”.
Thank you!

372H: A boy named Junior tries to fly (Solved!)

The book was found on the shelf of my grade school library near the Boxcar Children and my best guess of pub date is 1960s to 1990s-early reader chapter book/ middle school reading level. In the first book of the series a young boy jumps from the roof of the family barn with homemade (airplane?) wings and breaks both legs; I think the boy’s name is Junior- the story follows a sibling set who i remember being cared for by an older (non parent) male relative – there is a pet companion involved, a dog? At one point, Junior knocks on the front door to the home from the inside to ask permission to come sit outside with the older male relative in one of the series’ culminating scenes
This book has haunted my dreams for almost fifteen years and I badly want to find an old copy to read. please let me know if it sounds familiar and thank you for providing this essential service to society- that sounds facetious, but I promise I am serious as a heart attack, thank you. 

372E: Romance leads to “cheating”

I’m looking for a book I read in High-school (2011) I believe the book was written and or published 1985 to 1999.


Keywords: YA romance, senior year American high school, new girl, friends boyfriend returns from a semester abroad, new girl falls in love with friends boyfriend.


Summary/synopsis:The book starts out with a main female protagonist who was new that school year. The setting is high school, in the autumn/winter. She goes to school and talks with her new friends and finds out that one girls boyfriend who is returning home from a semester abroad.When the boyfriend returns, he’s very welcoming and excited to talk to everyone again but it seems like everyone is treating him very similar to the way he was before he left. He wants to talk about his new experiences and the only one who can relate to is the protagonist as she had family in the part of England that he visited. They talk about the old stained glass windows. Later it’s apparent they like one other a bit to much. They are hanging out together but during one day, it is too much and they talk about his feelings for the main character in his car. They decide that they should put distance their relationship so as not to be unfair to his current girlfriend until he breaks up with his  girlfriend to be with the main character.Somehow the friends catch wind of this and assume that the main character and boyfriend were cheating more than they did. The Ex girlfriend and main girl get into an argument and later at school the friend group is mad at both of them but the two main characters support one other through this until the friends realize the main characters were sincere and tried to make the most out of a hard situation. I believe it ends with talks on them going to college potentially together.


Other details I remember: they held hands in the car and the main character noticed the boyfriend’s thick healthy nails.The main character was a brunette.The ex girlfriend was blonde.The boyfriend played a sport before going to England. 
I can work out more information if I can, but I don’t want to Mandela effect myself more than I may have already done.

371Z: Keywords: summer, swimming, towels, pink lemonade

I’m trying to remember an illustrated hardcover book probably under 30 pages. If I had to guess I would have read this around 1989 and I’m thinking it was already a few years old at this point but not sure. If I remember correctly it was the story about two boys during summer I would guess set in the 1960’s but don’t quote me on that, reminiscing about the things they did. I remember them drinking pink lemonade with one of the boys grandfathers and walking to either a pool or a beach with rolled up towels under their arms to go swimming. I’m not too sure but I feel like one of them had trouble swimming but can’t remember anymore that that. It was pretty colorful and had a nice art style.