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321J: Girl Solves Mysteries On Rugged Terrain

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British young adult adventure/mystery book featuring young girl alone, about 12 or 13 years old. She would venture into caves and various outdoor settings, pursuing the mystery or hiding from someone. At times, it seemed to be rugged terrain, but I’m not certain about the location. She would take “tins” of food and her “rug” (blanket) with her. This is how I surmised it was British.
There were at least two books like this by this author. I read them in the 60s, but I think they were written before that. They were available in my local Midwestern library, (St. Joseph, MO). There were no illustrations or pictures that I recall and, as far as I can remember, the covers were blank. They seemed to be fairly lengthy books, as well.

321H: Wisps Haunt Village Near Reservoir (Solved!)

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The protagonist lives in a village at the base of a mountain. Everyone in this village owns some kind of cat-like animal with the semi-magical power to take bad feelings away except the protagonist who is allergic. Getting water requires an arduous journey up the mountain to a reservoir, made more dangerous by the “wisps” (or maybe will-o-wisps?). The wisps are little balls of light that come out at night which everyone fears.

The protagonist follows one of the cat-like animals one day and discovers a graveyard where they go to die. She discovers that, when they die, they release wisps, which are like all the pent up bad feelings they’ve absorbed over their lives. While there she climbs some kind of knoll and I’m fuzzy on the details but something happens that results in her being bound in some way to a newly created wisp, which gives the wisp some sort of subtle influence over her and her emotional state.

The protagonist then has to journey home while bound to a wisp, which tries to do things like demoralize her and lead her off cliffs. She reaches the reservoir and the wisp manipulates her into jumping/falling in. She ends up sucked through an underground river and wakes up in a cave on the other side of her village. The wisp is there, but the connection it had to her is broken.  So she’s discovered the reservoir is connected to and underground stream which runs near the village. She goes back with plans to tell her village about the river and ideas about to tap it for water.

Thank you in advance so much for your help, I’ve been trying and failing to find this book for 15 years!

321G: POW Rescued By Woman Of The Night

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I’m looking for a book I read many years ago, probably around the mid 1990’s, but I’m sure it was written much earlier than that, likely the early 80’s. From what I remember, it was a story about a POW or prison camp escape and/or rescue of a woman by a man who falls in love with her. I believe she may have been a prostitute and it may have been set during or adjacent to the Vietnam war era.

I remember one character, an older woman (perhaps a brothel Madam?) saying something like “she ain’t nothing but two hips and a hole” or similar when referring to the girls being prostituted.

321D: Mythical Animals From The 80s

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Hi! I am looking for a book that my son adored as a child, but neither of us can remember the title or author. It was an illustrated book about a mythical land with strange creatures: snake-like reptiles that coiled into circles to roll downhill and sometimes blew a flat, zebra/horse creatures that had to walk backwards, because their knees bent the wrong way. That’s all I can remember. I hope someone else knows it! Thank you!

321C: Illustrated little girl travels around the world taking pictures and sending postcards (children’s book)

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It was an illustrated children’s book that I read around 1994 or 1995 that followed a little girl who traveled the world taking photos and sending postcards. She went to lots of interesting destinations. The style of the illustration was kind of similar to Adele and Simon but I’m pretty sure the setting was more contemporary than the 19th century (she had a portable camera). I remember a few pages of illustration that looked like a bunch of different travel images (possibly the postcards or her photographs) stacked over each other in an illustrated pile.

321B: Two boys go to Switzerland.

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A family takes their two boys to Switzerland, and they have many adventures. My aunt can’t recall whether it was a fiction or non-fiction book or whether it was written for children or adults. She read it as a child, and it belonged to her grandparents who lived on a ranch in Southern California. My aunt thinks it may have been written in the 1800’s (she was a child in the 40’s).

Anything you can do to help will be much appreciated!!

321A: Halloween Tales For Kids

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I had this book when I was a kid, so around 15 years ago, and it might have been a few years old by then. I can’t remember the title, but here’s what I do remember. It was large. Not just thick, but tall and wide. (I was a kid though, so it might be smaller than I’m remembering.) The one I had was hardcover. The cover might have been dark blue/purple/green, but I don’t remember what was actually on it. It had full-page illustrations, I think through most or all of the book. It had several stories about Halloween characters for kids: – King Neptune was lonely, so he became friends with the ghost of a whale or dolphin. – The ghost of a castle was rambunctious and scared people off from his treasure. – Two witches lived near each other and didn’t get along. – A vampire wanted to act in his school play, and his vampire parents attended in the end. Please help! I love this book, and I would really like to have it for my kids someday! Thank you!