Author Archives: admin

336W: The Apple Family

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I don’t know the title of the book or the author, but I believe it was probably a chapter book I would’ve read when age 10-14? Our library’s copy had a well worn green cover. It was about a family and they all had apple names, I think, like Granny Smith and Jonathon, etc. I think they were actually apples, rather than people? I know that is very little to go on! I would have been those ages from 1968-1972 and I think it was an older book then. I can still remember the feel of it in my hands, as I checked it out over and over.

336U: Space Cruise In Nice Fit Body Goes Awry

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There is a science fiction novel I read in the 1980's, and I think it was a new title in that decade, although I am not certain about that. It was the story of a fat guy who had saved for a luxury space cruise vacation and had rented a sexy, fit body to occupy for his trip. After boarding the cruise ship, he discovered the body he was given by accident was a special combat model, and people thought he was someone else. They were chasing him to interrogate and/or kill him, and he had to rely upon the combat reflexes of the rented body to keep him alive, while trying to figure out what was going on.

336R: Large painted picture book with little people at war in forest (Solved!)

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I read this book in the 80’s in my elementary school library. Large, detailed paintings, rendered realistically, of little cartoon-ish humanoid people dressed in WWI type clothes and gear. They lived and fought in the forest and used animals as we would use machines. I remember the pictures always showing both sides trying to get the upper hand on one another in each picture, and one wore WWI German type gear, while the other side wore British.
One picture was a guy riding a sparrow, dressed as a fighter ace, the sparrow having a intricate harness to hold the rider and two maxim machine guns mounted to its back. He is looking behind him, or below at the opposing Sparrow pilot.

I have included sketches of what I remember.

336Q: Brigands

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I wish I had something more for hints, but this query comes for a book I believe was published in the 1930’s.  Had it been in the 1940’s I would have been able to read it myself, and I don’t think I ever could.
It was hard backed but not more that a half-inch thick, all black and white.  Illustrations included stick figures or possibly pear-shaped bodies (inverted?) with stick arms and legs.  These figures or characters were called “Brigands” and were bad.  I have no idea what the title may be.
There seem to have been two stories in the book.  It’s possible one was “Ferdinand the Bull,” but that may be a merged memory.
That’s all I’ve got and I really don’t expect anything.  You’d have to be older than I am with a marvelous memory.

336P: Girl with tangled hair and a fat uncle barefoot in a mudpuddle (Solved!)

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Seeking a children’s book about a slight girl with very long, slightly tangled dark hair, illustrated in realistic colored pencil, maybe?  On one page, there is a very affable, very fat uncle-type character, with his trousers rolled up, no socks or shoes on, and he’s in a stream or a mud puddle.  I feel like the girl has to be patient with her uncle(s) because he/they are very scatterbrained. 

336O: The Last Unicorn (Solved!)

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I feel as though the title of the book may have been along the lines of “The Last Unicorn” – but that book that comes up in my internet searches is not the correct book.  (The over 50 year old book that was made into a movie about the unicorn looking for more of her own kind is not the correct book.)

This novel was about a little girl that travels via carriage to an unknown family member’s home.  She passes through a gate of high walls.  There is a mysterious gate keeper who I believe turns out to be her grandmother who is very youthful and is a main character in the book.  There are geraniums at the home she ends up at and it is revealed later that the woman she interacts with is actually her grandmother…?  I’m unsure about all of this.  And there is a unicorn that she sees on a late night foray into the forest.  I believe she and a boy save it from destruction but all of my memory about this is foggy although I’m sure I read it many times.  I had a tendency to re-read books like this over and over and I’ll be very disappointed if I’m mixing plots.

336N: Reincarnation theme with lovers

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This children's picture book was likely published in the 70's, probably before 1978. It was set either in China or Japan and centered around a loving couple who died and then kept reincarnating as adversaries (like a fox and a hen) until they both reincarnated as swans. Loved getting this book at our local bookmobile from the Montgomery County public library system in Pennsylvania.

336M: Captive Mage Falls In Love With Woman Captive In Tower

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I’m looking for a fantasy novel, likely written in the 90’s, as I read it between 1998-2003, I think.
It was about a woman who was captive in a tower with a Druid/mage who produced alchemical fireworks. He was also some kind of captive in the city-kingdom, and naturally they fall in love.
My parents pitched it out and I’ll never let it go