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311H: Murder Mystery By The Apple Tree

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 A young adult novel with an early-teen female protagonist. Some sort of a murder, perhaps an elderly neighbor. I vaguely recall a police sketch of the killer (a man with glasses). The killer turns out to be a member of the family (or close acquaintance), and I vaguely recall lots of people milling around during the final scene while the young girl frantically tries to identify the killer from amongst the guests (like lots of people visiting for a festivity, possibly even the wake). She finally identifies him and ends up scaling a crab in the apple  tree to get away before he is finally stopped. It’s possible she witnessed the murder from this same tree.

311G: Jacobites and Second Sight

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Hello.  I’m looking for a children’s/ young adult novel I found in a school library in 1977.  I thought of it then as an “older book,” so I’m guessing the publication date to be between 1945 and 1965.  It’s historical fiction that takes place during Scotland in the Jacobite period.  The main character is a teen girl who sometimes has visions via the “second sight,” a gift that allows her to help save the prince at the end.  It’s not a Sally Watson book.

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.