Author Archives: admin

335L: Hat maker purchases a haunted painting of (I believe) a ship captain

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Several years ago I read a book about a woman who was opening a hat shop in an old house. She was shopping for decorations and was drawn to a painting of a captain. She bought it, and it turned out to be possessed by the captain, who became an annoyance, moving stuff and throwing her hats in the floor. She couldn’t see him unless she was asleep, and he would visit her in her dreams. She finally banished him from her dreams and he began visiting her roommate, who befriended/fell in love with him and found out he’d previously lived in the house. Any idea what the title or author of this book would be? It’s not The Ghost and Mrs. Muir.

335K: A Time Traveling Soldier

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I’m on a mission to find a book that I read years ago. Sci-Fi. It takes place in the future with a genetically modified soldier that gets injected with a drug that lets him occupy the bodies of his ancestors. Then, the 2 doctors who injected him also inject themselves to chase the dangerous solder thru time. One of the doctors is an alcoholic man and the other is a woman in a wheelchair.

The man doctor drinks a lot every night and then leaves the host with the hangovers! LOL One of the hosts was a Roman soldier. They argue every morning, inside “their” head, about the hangover.
The woman doctor doesn’t want to go back to modern times, because in the past her hosts are not in wheelchairs!
The soldier seems to be related to every bad guy ever known – Hitler, Napoleon, etc. Or related to someone near them.
I think I read this book in the late 70s or early 80s.

335J: Child May Be A Changeling

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This is a picture book, not a chapter book, read in 1964/1965 from a grade 3 classroom.

My memory of it may be faulty as I was 8 when I read it.

Girl is unhappy in her village and a misfit; one of the pictures shows her running with dark hair streaming behind her.  I remember the illustrations as being dark but beautiful, and the implication was that that the girl was a changeling.

Not “The White Ring” or “The Moorchild”.

335I: Fantastical Christmas sound effect book

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I am looking for the title of a children’s Christmas book which had sound effect buttons down one side which you could press. This book was a Christmas favourite of ours as children in the 1990’s, and was likely either an English or possibly American book, sent over by relatives living there at the time (posting from the UK).
The book listed various fantastical Christmas themed items, possibly describing a Christmas wish list, or remembering things from an (imaginary) Christmas walk or dream? The bits we can remember are:
  • Magic shoes for walking on a beam of light
  • A magic ride on Santa’s sleigh
  • Pirates treasure and a gold doubloon

I think the items repeated on each page with one being added each time. The last line of each section was “white snow, bright snow, icy cold starlit snow”.

Can anyone else remember this book, or shed any light on the title?

335G: The little boy who wouldn’t take a bath so he went to live with the dirties

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Back in the 1970’s we read a book about a little boy who wouldn’t take a bath. He got so dirty he went to live in what I remember to be a cave with dirty “people.” They may have been more like ogres or something. I remember that he at first loved being filthy, but I think he then missed his family.
I don’t remember much else. Something about rotten eggs comes to mind, but I’m not sure why. This book was read over 40 years ago, so my recollection isn’t so great.
Thank you! I can’t wait to see if anyone can figure this one out!

335D: Children’s Book About Climbing A Mountain

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This was a book for younger children that I borrowed repeatedly from the library in the early 1970's in the UK. All I can remember are the first few lines:

“It wasn’t a cold day. It wasn’t a hot day. It was a day just right for climbing a mountain.”

I know it was a picture book, but I have no more idea about what happened in the story.

I’d love to track it down if possible.

335C: Bonnie’s First Crush Goes Awry From A Misunderstanding

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I am looking for a book called Bonnie. It may also be spelled Bonny. I read it in the early 1980's when I was in 4th or 5th grade. I believe it was set in the 1950's. The main character sang in an all girls chorus and had her first crush. I think I remember that they went ice skating for one of their dates, maybe their first date. But at some point, she thinks he likes someone else or doesn't like her anymore for some reason. Of course, in the end, it was all a misunderstanding. It was a chapter book and had some illustrations, and I remember the book I read had a yellow cover with a picture of the main character (sketched).