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294T: The Six

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This book I read in 1984 and was a collection of six stories of a British youth gang; each story focused on a different member of the gang. One character may have been called Darkie Bates. One of the six stories took place in a disco where the gang member was ‘saved’ by the friend of a girl he had earlier been insulting with terms like “frog-eyes”, when she hit his assailant with a bottle. He ended up going out with her. The author may have been Tony someone but just as likely not. Great book for young adult fiction.

294R: Young Adult Fantasy Featuring Giant Blob (Solved)

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Our teacher read us “A Wrinkle In Time” when I was in the seventh grade, about 1980. At the end of this book, there was one chapter from another book, sort of a promotional sample. It featured a fantasy warrior of some kind looking at a giant blob that contained the half-digested remains of many other warriors, their armor and their weapons, spears and such. I always wanted to read that story, never found out the name. Since it was at the end of the L’Engle book, I thought it might be published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, but I don’t know how to research it. Ring any bells?

 

294Q: Time travel in red

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A book read in the 1970s – then in paperback – set in New York City about 1870 – on the upper East Side, perhaps 58th Street, near Bloomingdale’s Department Store. The first chapter opens with a crime committed on the block. It might have been winter time – not sure. It might have been a murder or it might have been some other type of crime on a person. Chapter two describes a similar crime. Same block. But 100 years later – now in the present period. Thereafter each chapter alternates the time periods – 100 years earlier, then the current period. Subsequent action took place on or around the same city block in New York. The “aha” moment came close to the end of the book when the connection was made between the two time periods. The word “Red” may have been part of the title but Google and other searches on “Red” and time warp or time shift or time travel have not revealed the title.

294P: Biting the beaver was the battle plan

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I was born in 1943 and remember a children’s book about a pond.  The pond was home to many animals – rabbits, frogs, fish, badgers, etc.  But it also was one to a wicked beaver who wanted to destroy the pond.  All the animals had to get together to defeat the beaver and save their pond.  Of course they were successful.  I remember something about the bees swarming and biting the beaver mercilessly as part of their battle plan.  And it worked.

294O: Hans of Luck

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I was hoping you could give me some information on a short story I read probably 46 years ago.

The story is about a young Hessian soldier who is captured during the American Revolution after the battle of Bennington in 1777. His captors, Vermont militiamen, have orders to kill any prisoners, but they wind up sparing him and one brings him back to his farm.

I think they story is titled either “Hans of Luck” or “Lucky Hans.” “Hans” may also be spelled “Hons.” I read this story in the 1970s.

 

294N: Boy with Toy Boat in Central Park

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I’m searching for a children’s chapter book that I read and loved when I was about 10 or 11 in the early 1970s. All I remember about it is that it was about a boy who lived in an apartment building near Central Park, and in the afternoons he and an older man (perhaps his grandfather?) would sail his toy boat in Central Park. (I’m not thinking of Stuart Little!) I think the apartment doorman might have been a character as well. My guess is that the book was written sometime in the mid-1960s.

294M: Teeth Vs. No Teeth (Solved)

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A children’s story about a girl who goes off to sea with a bunch of toys, including a toy soldier (but he was probably a toy sailor or sea captain)? Eventually, a duck leads a mutiny of all of the toys with no teeth against the toys with teeth. I must have read this in the 70’s as a hardcover in my school library and it seemed turn-of-the-century but who knows. I believe it had a sad ending.

294K: Cut-out model airplanes

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I do not know the title or author of this book.  The cut-out “book” came out sometime around 1940-1945, I believe.  It was about 8 1/2″ by 11″, possibly bigger, and perhaps 3/8″ thick.  The book contained cut-out WWII era airplanes in full color, perhaps two pagers per plane.  When assembled they had a 3D presentation e.g. the fuselages were cylindrical and the wings’ surfaces were curved.  They were not intended to be “flown” like a glider.  They were surprisingly realistic when assembled.