Author Archives: admin

329X: Young adult science fiction book featuring an alien boy hiding on Earth with an caretaker/teacher (Solved!)

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I remember reading this book in the late 80's and I think it was the 2nd book in a series. The only details I really remember of it are: 1. The boy had to fake his death in the beginning (involving a bus) and move to another town. 2. He had special powers and could turn invisible 3. He kept having premonitions about upcoming events. 4. One of the premonitions involved lightning during a little league baseball game. I also think the planet he came from was something like Altair or another "A" name.

329W: Caribbean Island Adventures With Photos

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I am looking for a book that I think my parents must have brought back from a Caribbean vacation in the 70s. It was the story of a bunch of island kids, boys and girls of different ages, maybe set in the Bahamas, or maybe not that specific, but definitely in the English-speaking Caribbean. Any adults were marginal background characters. There was a hand-drawn map of their island that showed beaches, caves, meeting places, shortcuts, etc. It was essentially a picture book, but scenes from the story were illustrated with black-and-white photographs of black children (actors? the author’s kids and neighbors?) and island scenes. The combination of an exciting adventure story with actual photography was wonderful.

329V: Girl who runs family farm or plantation and love story with doctor

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I’m looking for an older book. It was a bit like Daddy Long-Legs and Dear Enemy in tone, although not written in epistolary format. In the book, the girl (either an older teen or early 20’s) is in charge of running a family farm or plantation after the death of a family member (can’t remember if one or both parents died). There are various servants and some younger family members who live there as well. The girl has to shoulder the burden of all the work. Various challenges ensue, including everyone getting sick and a local area doctor coming to treat them. I want to say that they were raising cotton, but I’m not completely sure. She initially thinks that the doctor hates her, but in the end, he reveals his love and admiration for her. I believe it is set in the US—either the South or the Midwest. The time period would be early 20th century—it’s definitely not set later than 1950. I checked it out from the library several times and I believe the author’s last name is towards the end of the alphabet, although I can’t quite remember what it was.

329T: Medieval Adventures In The Forest – A Jester, A Shared Dream

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This is a book that I started reading in 5th grade, but never finished. It must have been published in 1972 or earlier. It was wildly popular in my school library.

It was set in the Middle Ages, I think. One of the main characters was a court jester. The setting was very pastoral. Many scenes take place in a forest. There was also a situation in which several people were dreaming the same dream.

This has been haunting me for a long time. Would love  to find and finish this book. Thank you!

329S: My Lady, My Love (Solved!)

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I’m looking for a book I read I as a teen in the 60s called My Lady, My Love. No idea who wrote it. It is about a king whose wife died. He was so distraught that he didn’t want another queen. The kingdom needed a queen so he married a baby. (Not in a creepy way). He figured by the time she grew up, he would be over his wife.

329R: A Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Space Exploration Picture Book

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I’m trying to track down a book I read a lot as a kid.

It was a large picture book, maybe 8×10 inches. Probably hardcover. Full-page color illustrations. Not very long, if I remember correctly.

It was choose-your-own-adventure style. You were an astronaut/space explorer who landed (or crash-landed?) on an alien planet.

There were mild role-playing game elements to it. For example, you selected a couple pieces of equipment at the beginning of your adventure, and there was a part where you turned to the back and studied a xenobiology index for exactly 2 minutes and then weren’t allowed to reference it again.

You navigated the dangerous alien planet and tried to avoid toxic atmosphere, poisonous plants, and dangerous creatures.

I would have read it (from my school’s library) sometime between ’91 and ’96. I’m guessing it was published in the 80s, but it technically could have been the early 90s or maybe even the 70s? Just feels like an 80s thing.

Would love to track this down. It had a big impact on my imagination and creative inspiration over the years, I’m sure.

Thanks!

329Q: Time Traveling Girl

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The book is about a young woman who is sent to an old mansion/school and travels back in time. She falls in love. There is a school legend about a woman who cries for her lost love, and it turns out to be her. She and the love interest fight evil people, and he gets pulled into the present with her. It is similar but is NOT the one where an old vinyl record is unearthed that was written for a time traveling girl.

329P: Don’t Open the Front Door

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The book I read was written in Dutch (I’m from Belgium), but it may well be a translation of an English title. It must have been a book intended for a young public. I was about 10 to 13 years old when I borrowed it at the library, it must have been the late eighties or early nineties.
To the best of my memory…The story is about a person (man, woman? I don’t remember) who stays in some house (why and where? Don’t remember…) and is told to not open the door, maybe on a specific night (Christmas Eve?). Of course, he/she does open the door, or forgets to lock it. From that point on, the poor main character is haunted every night by a loud noise in the house, kind of a screaming, keeping him/her awake. I don’t know who or what caused that awful noise, but there is no communication possible with this thing/person. It’s driving the main character almost to a nervous breakdown, mainly due to sleep deprivation. I think the nightly haunting is supposed to keep going on for a certain period of time, maybe a year: the main character knows it will come to an end at a given moment and he/she will have to endure it one way or another. One night, the noise seems a little less hard, as if the person/thing who caused it, has come to some sort of pity with our main character.
 
Hopefully you’ll discover something, I would be very grateful! The story sounds a bit stupid for an adult, but it really impressed me as a child, and now that I’m having a son of my own, it would be cool if he could read it some day (there’s still time, he’s only 2 years old :-)).

329N: Magical World Past A Hole In The A Hedge

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Seeking children’s picture book, pre-1999 but probably after 1980. Round brothers and sister with straw hats (maybe sailor outfits too) find a hole in a hedge. They get all dirty in a mud puddle and find a magical world with a very geometric castle on the other side of the hedge. One of them might get lost/want to stay. Found in a library in 90s. Driving me insane.