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311F: Whacky inventions and contraptions (Solved)

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I remember looking at this book in the mid 80s, so it was probably published around that time or before. It was a large book and, as I recall, every page was completely filled with full-colour image of many inventions/contraptions, all set in context. It was highly detailed annotated with descriptions. I don’t recall there being any narrative.

For example: one page showed a house with all the rooms in view. Each room had things going on all annotated with detailed little notes. I remember the bathroom had a special invention that allowed a cheeky child to lie in a bath without getting wet. Built into this contraption was a hidden computer game console which allowed them to secretly play games (to me this dates the book in the 80s). To emulate the sounds of him bathing, another contraption stood near by called the “bath-farter” or something.

Another page showed a huge wheel of mischief rolling down a street with arms extending from it. These arms could rattle windows or throw sot down chimneys. Again – the wheel was annotated with many notes.

Authors/illustrators I thought it might be but sadly aren’t are: Heath Robinson, Alan Snow, Donna Lugg, Steven M Johnson and Raymond Briggs.

I’ve been looking for this book for many years and any help would be very gratefully received.

 

311E: An Old Abbot’s House

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The book I am thinking about would have been published before 1968 I believe because i read it when I was about eight or nine in 1967.  I live in England.  I believe i borrowed it from the library or the school library.

The book was about a group of children staying in an old Abbot’s house or at least close to an old monastery.  Virtually all I can remember of the plot was the finding of an old map in a settle in the house, which led them to find treasure in the monastery garden.I seem to remember the treasure was actually from the church and it was important for some reason that it had been found.

311B: Emotionless Creature

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Hey, guys! I’m trying to find the name of a book for my husband. He’s been searching for it for a really long time. He remembers it as a young adult novel.
So, from what I understand, it’s about a creature (possibly child shaped and most likely male) who lives alone in the wild and scorns humans for their emotional attachments. The creature can see everyone’s emotional attachments as tendrils of light coming out of them. At some point, this creature gets taken in by an old woman and begins to develop his own attachments to certain people and it distresses him.

311A: Married To An Abusive Older Man

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The book is adult fiction. Set in Australia, or somewhere near there, in the early 1900s?? A young woman is married to an abusive older man. She murders him, hides his body in their basement, and then burns down the house. She then goes on the lam, and at one point, meets up with a group of cattle thieves.  She tags along with them/works with them. Eventually, the authorities catch up to her, but she runs away again.

310Z:The Princess Who Was Trapped In A Rainbow

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 Hardcover book. I was in love with this book as a very young child in the mid-80s (figure around 1986 or1987?)
Took it out from a library/would look at it in school – in Springfield, MA, (just in case location helps).
The book was about a beautiful young girl who was stuck (?) kidnapped (?) Lost (?) in a rainbow. I think she was a princess and each kingdom she ran to/went to as she tried to get home was a different color. I remember loving the illustrations. I want to say it was either watercolor or more detailed hand drawn. Not computer illustrated.
Probably not more than 50 pages.
I remember it being slightly oversized (but I was probably about 7 so take that with a grain of salt).  *MIGHT* have been a scholastic book as we had book fairs at school and kids use to buy books from those Scholastic book flyers all the time.
Princess’s name might have started with an A.

310Y: The Alphabet book

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BC alphabet book from the 1980's. Soft cover, probably a burgundy colour. Place names from British Columbia, e. g. : Annie from Abbotsford, and then a little story about that. Bought for my son who was born 1982 so could've been published in the 70's? I believe he received it when he was 4 or 5 years old.

 

310X: Cherished books

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My father is desperate to find a cherished book from his childhood in Northern Ireland.  It was a compilation of poems and short stories published around 1945-1950.  He thinks it may have been a War Economy publication.  He cannot remember the name of the anthology.  The stories and poems he recalls are,

“How Horatius Kept the Bridge” by Macaulay

A tale about Ralph the Rover who removed the bell from the Inchcape Rock

“Rikki Tikki Tavi” by Rudyard Kipling

“Jackanapes” about the boy who became a bugler in Wellington’s army at Waterloo.  I think the author is J H Ewing.

“Stratosphere Express”: the tale of a huge, futuristic airliner that flew at 500 miles an hour and 60,000 feet across the Atlantic and, would you believe, was highjacked on its first trip

“Power on Deck” about the young engineering cadet who saves his ship from certain disaster

There was another story about a mysterious seaplane and the three children who put an end to its smuggling activities… with a little help from the Fleet Air Arm

The adventures of Mr. Bumbletoes of Bumbleton, the nursery floor creation who came alive at night with all his fellow citizens.

310W:It Was His Home

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 Looking for the title of an illustrated children’s picture book published in the mid-1950s to 1960 or so. It was about a dog (possibly named George, possibly a poodle?). My husband’s family recalls nothing about the story except the refrain, repeated throughout the book, “(But) It was his home, and he liked it there.