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367M: Person who eats along with story they read (Solved!)

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I think this might have been a short story published in Cricket Magazine in the 1980s – early 90s, perhaps with Quentin Blake illustrations? It was a short story that told about a reader that had a voracious appetite for books AND for any food that was mentioned in the books they read. If the character in a book was drinking tea, the reader had to have tea, and so on.
The memory of this story has plagued me for years, I’d love very much to read it again.

367K: Pebble removed from horse hoof grows and explodes

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The main character is a young girl, moody, sent to live with a family member (possibly aunt and cousin). She’s a bit of a troublemaker and/or lies a lot. – She sits on a fence outside and sees an old lame mare in the field. A man (named Joe, says “Aye” a lot) who owns the horse chats to the girl and gets a pebble out of the horse’s hoof to stop her lameness. – The girl likes this unusual pebble and keeps it on the windowsill in her room because the light hits it nicely. – The pebble grows and eventually falls off the windowsill. – It gets so big she and the other girl (her cousin?) have to lump it into a wheelbarrow and get it away from the house, where it tips the barrow and eventually explodes into many pebbles. Read between 1990 – 2005 in the UK.

367J: Grapes that go pop

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Looking for a children’s book. It’s a goodnight book, what they’ve done during the day, including “grapes that go pop” when you eat them. I read it to my son in 1992-3, so it’s earlier than that. Included a picnic and possibly grocery shopping.

367I: A Magical Trip

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As a fourth grader in 1980, I had a teacher who kept a personal library of paperback books for us children to read when we were finished with all our other work. I read dozens of books in Mrs. Cohn’s classroom.
So assume this book to be anywhere from 1950s-1970s publication, a novel but fairly short. Things I recall:
There were at least two boys on the trip to another world/realm/dimension which they may have accessed via a cave.
Somehow they were equipped with a small wooden box of sausage and cheese. Intending to conserve their rations, they only ate half of each and discovered upon reopening the box that the food had regenerated to the full, original proportion.
They also had a blanket that would cover them both but fold down to pocket handkerchief sized and a “magic” match that could be struck and used again and again and even be stuck in a crevice and (perhaps rotated?) to become bright as a torch.
In one scene they passed a gangrel/beggar/wastrel on the road and as he came toward them he morphed into a well-clad, upright gentleman with a sandwich board or a handbell and advertised some type of ware or service and upon passing, returned to his former low state.

367H: Dragon of the Mountain (Solved!)

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I came across a website called “what to do when you can’t remember the title of a long lost children’s book” and I used their guide to scrape the inside of my skull for details to give your group-mind.

Now, I’m only assuming the title of the book is “Dragon of the Mountain,” but I could be mistaken. That’s just… what the book was about, and since nothing comes up on Google or Amazon, I’m probably mistaken. Maybe it was Tears of the Dragon, or who knows, uh, Dragon Mountain and How the River Came To Be or…. take a guess and yours is as good as mine, honestly. So, here are my scrapings:

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STORY–Write down what you do know about the story.
It’s about an Asian (Chinese? Japanese? I don’t know where, just somewhere in Asia…) folk tale of a village that lives in fear of the Dragon of the Mountain, except for one little boy who goes up to visit the dragon, because he thinks the dragon must be very lonely, and then the dragon starts to weep with joy, and floods the land, and the boy is going to drown, but the dragon takes him on his back and they float down the river of tears together, and the dragon turns into a boat, and sacrifices himself to save the boy.

Do you remember character names or where the story took place?
The title character is the dragon, and it takes place somewhere in pre-industrial Asia. Can’t be more specific than that.

Were there anthropomorphized animals in the story?
Only the dragon, insomuch as he was able to speak and reason. He was still fully a dragon, of course.

Do you think the person reading the story to you may have “improvised” a bit?
No one read the story to me, but given that it is a folk-tale, I would assume the author probably did.

ILLUSTRATIONS–What do you remember about the illustrations?
Were they colorful or monotone?
Very colorful illustrations!

Very detailed or line drawings?
I have the impression in my mind that they were watercolors, but that might just be because of the subject matter, with all the tears and the flooding and the boat and it being an Asian story.

Did they fill the page or just accompany the text?
Just like a Dr. Seuss book.

Do they remind you of any specific illustrator or artist’s style?
Uh, watercolors. They were beautiful watercolors, at least in my mind’s eye they are.

BOOK FEATURES–Physical features are important, too: was the book you read hardback or paperback?
It was hardback.

Was it a picture book or chapter book?
It was a picture book.

What color were the covers?
My memory is extremely vague on this, but I remember a predominantly maroon-ish feeling. I honestly never paid much attention to the cover, I was interested in the inside, not the outside.

Was there a dust jacket?
I don’t remember one, but I don’t have dust jackets from any of my books from back then.

How big was the book?
Similar to a standard Little Golden Book or Dr. Seuss Book.

Were the pages glossy or matte?
I believe they were glossy.
   

MEMORIES–Personal information is also helpful. How old were you when you remember reading the book and what year was it?
I’m pretty sure I had it at least by the age of eight, which would be 1979.

Were you able to read it yourself or did you need someone to read it to you?
I read it entirely on my own.

Do you think it was a book bought for you at the time or was it a hand-me-down from an older sibling or a parent?
I believe it was bought for me, though I could be mistaken.

Was it borrowed from a public library for you to read?
No, I owned it.

Did you read it in school or at home?
It was my own book, I read it at home.
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I just would love, as all your customers would, to be reunited with my old friend.

367G: Soap soap soap don’t forget the soap (Solved!)

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I am looking for a book, it may have been in a compilation book, called Soap Soap Soap, Don’t Forget the Soap. My boyfriend read it as a child in the 1970s. There is a book with the same title that was published in 2003. It is not the same book, but it sounds like the same story. A young boys mother sends him to the store to get soap, and as he tries not to forget the soap, a bunch of things happen to him. The 2003 version says it is an Appalachian Folktale.

367F: Collection of short children stories

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I am looking for a collection of children’s stories I read to my kids in the 1990s. I can only recall the title of two of the short stories inside this wonderful book. One was A Pair of Red Clogs by Masako Matsuno and the other was The Pudding like a Night on the Sea by Ann Cameron. I am sorry but that is all of the information I have. Any ideas?

367E: Children’s book, dispute over bag, magical claims but ultimately not magic

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From what I remember of this children’s book, there are people disputing over a small bag and someone asked them to describe what is in the bag to prove ownership. Fantastical claims are made of what’s in the bag, I believe they say animals are even in the bag, things that couldn’t possibly fit in a bag unless it was magic. In the end, the bag is not filled with any of these items. If I remember correctly, it is filled with fruit peels and seeds? Or something similar. I believe it’s set in the Middle East but I can’t fully remember. This is a book I thought about many times over the years since reading in the late 90s as a child but I’m not even sure I remember it correctly. I’m hoping someone can point me in the right direction.

367D: 1970s Children’s Environmental/Dystopian

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I’m looking for a book I read in the seventies (or maybe 1980), it was a children’s book about kids that lived in a high rise and never went on the streets because of too much pollution/a ruined world. They may have gone outdoors only once a year. They may have worn gas masks or breathing masks. I remember dark illustrations and it being a cautionary tale. I believe that all the remaining world’s population lived in one high rise building. I think there may have been one remaining plant or flower and that going to look at it was extraordinary/special. Definitely a picture book.

367C: When the Sweets Come Alive

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I remember this book from childhood, where on one page there is this bakery where it is either run by a witch or vampire and the treats are alive. Like the devil dog cakes are actual devil dogs with a tail and wings. The lady fingers are actual fingers. It was cute and cartoony and these treats were all in a glass case like a real bakery. It was definitely an elementary book like a beginner book. I must have been reading it in the 1990’s. I can’t recall the overall theme of the book but vividly remember this particular page. I think the overall theme must be fantastical or magical, maybe Halloween but I can’t remember a title or author. Please help me.