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300H: Best Friends

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The book is a juvenile chapter book from the ’70s or ’80s. Called something like _Best Friends_. It’s about a girl who loses her best friend to another girl. I remember that she eats Chinese food with a new friend at the friend’s restaurant. She also participates in a puppet show from Alice in Wonderland and she is the Red Queen. The former best friend comes crawling back after a fight with the new girl but she realizes that she likes having lots of friends vs. exclusive to one best friend.

300G: The Leprechauns used to be in heaven

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St. Patrick’s Day picture book where man is captured by leprechauns. I don’t remember much of it, but when I was in middle school (2010-2014) a teacher read us a book about a man whose horse/cow was stolen by leprechauns, so he follows them the next time they come and gets trapped in their home under a mountain until he can escape— which he eventually does and with his animal. The one thing I definitely remember is that the book mentioned that the Leprechauns used to be in heaven, but they were thrown out by Gabriel after the fall of Lucifer, forcing them to live on earth with humans.

300F: Children were not allowed to sleep

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Fiction.

I got it at a church bazaar in 1968.

It had a dark brown hard cover.

Paper quality was smooth, semi- shiny.

In the story, children were complaining to parents that they didn’t want to sleep, and play longer. In the night a witch/sorcerer/elf kidnapped them and took them to his land, where children were not allowed to sleep. When they were sleepy, he would not allow it. They had to stay awake.

A child escaped/ rescued by angel-type, and went to angel type area, where they were allowed to sleep. They became soldiers against the witch. They were strengthened by drinking milk.

300E: Sleep by day and live by night

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The book I am looking for is a series. I grew up in Australia and while I cannot be sure, I think the author was Australian (possibly even female). The story is about three children or young teenagers. They live in the future where the world is too hot by day for anyone to be active, so they now sleep by day and live by night. The children have to go beyond their village or camp for some reason and they end up crossing vast land in search of something. I believe there were three books in the series, although it may have been more. I remember thinking it was interesting that everyone lived by night, with the light of the fire. The elders were respected. It was almost as though humans had to resort to the way of life before modern civilization. I think they have found a lost city on their adventure.

I have been trying for a really long time to find this book series. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

300D: Slow mouse is left behind by family and builds house by lake (Solved)

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I read this book with my dad 15 or so years ago, when I was quite young, and I haven’t been able to track it down since. It is about a young mouse who is extremely slow at everything, and one day his parents and many siblings go out on rollerskates (not 100% sure about the rollerskating part) and because he is so laggy, he is left behind. He ventures into the wilderness and settles by what I remember to be a lake, where he begins building a house out of sticks and leaves and eventually makes friends. I think he is reunited with his family at the end. If it helps, the fabric book cover was a dark reddish color with a small, realistic drawing of a mouse standing on its hind legs in the center. It was very weathered over a decade ago, so it may be a much older book. Thank you!!

300B: Not “Infidel” or “Stolen Lives”

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The book I’m looking for was published between 2000 and 2007, is nonfiction and was written by a woman ( a lawyer or a politician?) from the Middle East about her life, including her imprisonment for her ” radical” views.   The author was interviewed on NPR by Terry Gross ( looked there without success) and there was a short ( on the last page) interview with her in the NYTimes magazine section ( and I contacted the editor) around the same time.

The book is not “Infidel” or “Stolen Lives”.

I’m hoping you can help.  Thank you in advance.

299Z: Children’s bedtime anthology

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I’m looking for this book of illustrated stories I read during my school days (would have been ~15-20 years ago). It had a light blue hard cover and the title I believe was something along the lines of “365 Illustrated Bedtime Stories” or the like (I have tried searching various book websites with various combinations of this name but no luck).

It was a collection of 365 illustrated stories, each a few pages long. I remember details from a few –

1) There were a few stories about a young boy wizard who is getting trained. In one of the stories he had a long day and fell asleep (there was a specific illustration about this)

2) There were a few stories about a family on an alien planet in space (terraforming it?), assisted by a bunch of sentient construction robots. The family consisted of a mum, dad, son, daughter and pet dog. In one story, there is an infestation of mechanical crab like creatures – one of the children get carried off and is later rescued by the robots. In another, they accidentally puncture the crust of the planet which starts flooding the surface with the underground ocean that they were unaware existed. They are unwilling to leave the robots but have to evacuate the planet. Thankfully, the robots modify themselves into a spacecraft and manage to evacuate as well (I remember a few lines that were along the lines of – suddenly there was a bright flash of retro boosters from the surface… the robots has transformed [one of them] into a spacecraft etc etc)

I believe there was a companion book of “365 Illustrated Daytime Stories” with a light peach cover, and I believe a basket of curled up puppies / kittens or a large curled up squirrel with a bushy tail on its cover.

Sorry I know this might not be much to go on, but I really loved these books as a child and am very keen to get my hands on them if possible.

Any help would be very much appreciated!! Thanks in advance

299Y: Jewish family jewelry business

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I’m searching for the title/author/copies of a multi-volume series about a Jewish family in the jewelry business in Eastern Europe – though I vaguely recall that the series might have started with a middle eastern trader – maybe.  The series ended with WWII – I think. Maybe in Vienna? I feel like I read these in the 1980s – in paperback. So they were probably published earlier than that. I liked the series so much – but now I can’t remember anything more about them.