Author Archives: admin

323Z: Girl Grows Up In Coastal Town, Where Body Is Found On Beach

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The book I am looking for I read between 2006 and 2010. I believe it was a young adult novel/ coming of age and had a dark blue/purple cover with cursive writing. Looked to be a night image above the sea, maybe?

Plot was about a girl that, I believe, lived in coastal town (maybe northeast) with her family. They ran some sort of store (deli, small grocery or something) and they lived in back or above the store. She had a sister who got pregnant and married. I think her sister might have moved back home after she had the baby. She also had a couple brothers or one who was missing or had died. Tommy is ringing a bell of a character.

The main girl made friends with another prettier girl who was popular, and they were friends with a couple boys. They went to a dance at a local country club or golf club and I remember the main girl having issues over picking out the dress she wore. Something either yellow or with eyelets maybe?

I think someone died or drowned in the book? There was something that happened where a body was found down on the beach…Maybe related to the town trouble maker (his brother ?).

Sorry this is fuzzy and I think some plots of books I read during the same time running together. I thought a man wrote the book and it was out of his normal genre but I could be wrong.

I would greatly appreciate your help! I have been searching for this off and on for years. My friend has recommended it but she cannot remember it either.

323Y: Cream Puff Craziness

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My parents read this book to me in the early- to mid-1970s. It was probably published around then, though earlier is also possible. It was a children’s picture book, fiction, and I remember that it had something to do with cream puffs. Not sure if cream puffs were in the title or not. To be honest, although to me cream puffs were very important to the book, I also wonder if that was just what my child-brain clung to. Thank you!

323X: Suspected Witch Is Really The Hexed One

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I am looking for a children’s chapter book from the late 70s or early 80’s.  It was about a girl who gets sent to stay with a strange lady.  The girl thinks she is a witch, but it turns out some other lady is jealous of her and was placing spells on her.  I remember a scary scene when the girl is forced to drive the car to save her but the evil woman is in the back seat…

323W: Small White Teddy Bear Looking For A Home

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I am looking for a book that I read in the mid 80s to early 90s. It is a book about a tiny white teddy bear who is lost and/or looking for a home. There are scenes of him wandering throughout a field. They also have him staged in a birdhouse…perhaps a dollhouse. This book is not illustrated. It is a series of photographs of a tiny white teddy bear staged in different locations. One of the locations is a birdhouse or dollhouse, one of the locations is a field. I don’t remember anything else. I submitted a query nearly 10 years ago, now 🙁 I’ve been looking since! Thank you

 

323V: Young Animal Finds That Pink Snow Is Just Snow

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It is the story of an animal (a sheep, I think) who has grown tired of eating the same white snow every day. One day he looks up and sees at sunset, on the horizon, pink snow. The animal sets out to find this beautiful snow and after a long journey finds that the snow isn’t always pinker on the other side.
The book would have been from before the mid 90s.

323U: Bear On Vacation Takes Unskillful Pictures

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Seeking information on a children’s book about a bear (?)/character going sightseeing in London, but takes pictures crooked, with thumb in them, etc. but doesn’t see until developed. But also got a pack of postcards that has the actual pictures, so he has those as memories. Possibly could have a Double-Decker bus on the cover.

323T: Wise Dad Comforts Heartbroken Girl Who Was Denied Doll

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I’m looking for a children’s book. I think the title may be “The Pinks” but I don’t know the author. It’s about a girl who is saving money for a doll in a store window. Before she can buy the doll, a rich girl from her school buys her. The girl is heartbroken and her dad says some wise things. The dad is a truck driver and he likes music. He says something like “strife makes good art”.  The book was probably written in the late 90’s or early 2000’s.

Thank you for your help!

323R: Teen Girl Loves Horse But Cannot Ride After Accident

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Ya fiction series with a horse, rich girl has an accident and can't ride. Her rich grandmother buys her a brand new Datsun (car), so she's at least 16 or 17, set in the 70s or 80s, published during that period. I think she was nasty to a few girls and tries to make up for it after the accident. I think she may have been in a coma. Her boyfriend might have cheated as well. I think it had a yellow cover with the old style oval centre that contained the image. I think she had a rich sounding name, Courtney or something but I'm not 100% on that. The horse accident was bad and she desperately loved her horse but was too afraid to ride it. I read this series in the late 80s, early 90s, but my sister threw them out before I could finish them. I never forgave my sister, who dares throw out a book? The books were paperback, they had maybe 100 to 150 pages, so not very thick. From the content, I think they were targeted towards ages 16 and up. I think the girl went to college as well. Her grandmother was some type of business woman.

323Q: Town Gets Rid Of Laws And Other Stories (Solved)

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Growing up, I was born in 1982, we had a book that was a compilation of short stories and some poems and other things. It was a light blue/teal colored hard back book with a paper cover. It was a bigger book, like maybe more of an 8.5×11 size. There was a story in it about a town that got rid of all the rules and laws for the day and people didn’t wear their seat belts and sped around town. And there were pictures in the book. There was also another story about 2 teenage sisters who got in an argument and one sister ripped the nose on the other sister’s David Lee Roth poster and tried to cover it up. The book was definitely super random with stories ranging from life lessons to fun little kid’s stories. At some point my mom has lost or gotten rid of it and I’ve been trying to remember what this book was for about 3 years now. It’s been driving me nuts and both her and my brother have no recollection of it. Please help!!!!

323P: Boy runs errands for mom, takes wrong advice each time

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A male youth does an errand for Mom but does it wrong, and on each subsequent errand he follows the advice she had given him the previous time.
Ex: He is carrying a cat to give away, but it wiggles free from his hands and scurries away.
Mom says, “Next time, put it in your hat so it won’t jump free. “
So his next errand is to take a pound of butter to market.  He puts the butter under his hat.  But it melts.
“Next time,” mom says, put it in your pack.  So the next time, he is carrying something that cannot survive in his pack, but he puts it in the pack.
Great drawings, delightful in the 60s when I read it.