Author Archives: admin

366M: Anthology with a club that dresses like monsters, a girl who gets wishes that go wrong, possibly a crocodile and more?

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I remember this hardback white book from my childhood. It had a lot of stories in it. The one I remember most vividly was about a club of boys and girls who did all sorts of stuff. They host an event where they come disguised as monsters. They figure out who everyone is, except one monster who they assume must be the last club member (I think it was a girl, Katie?). So this yellow monster doesn’t look like a costume like the others. The monster ends up winning lots of events. But then at the end, the missing club member shows up late and it turns out it was a real, friendly monster the whole time. Another story in it was about a girl who received wishes for her birthday? I think from her aunt? It’s possible she made these wishes using candles? Or a magic bag. The wishes all go wrong. I think one makes these awful ugly babies or monsters? And one involves cr

366L: The Mouse’s House by the Waterhole

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I’m trying to find a children’s book my mother read me over 50 years ago.

I remember vividly.

The mouse tells all the animals at the waterhole:

There’s a creature in my house yelling and screaming and throwing the furniture out of the windows.

He says this to lions, tigers, giraffes.  In the end, it turns out the creature is  an owl that the jungle animals trumpet and roar at, and it flies out of the mouse’s house in the tree.

Then, the lions realize they are hungry, and the giraffes and zebras etc. run away before the lions and tigers can get them.  The mouse returns to his house in the tree.

366K: Adventures in Nature

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In the mid-1950s I had a book about two children learning about nature from their grandfather(?). Probably an elementary textbook from the 1930s (I had a second book at the same time: “Following the Frontier” by W. L. Nida, 1934, so the book in question probably came from the same school discards). The book in question had ink line drawings — I remember a drawing of a potter wasp or mud dauber wasps’ nest shaped like a vase.

366J: Kid’s Book about Sailboat Family

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In the early 90s my dad used to read me a children’s book about a father teaching his daughter how to sail. The mom was against getting a boat at first, but then started tending to it like sewing curtains for it, and learned to love the boat. The family had a great adventure on the boat. 
That’s all I got! Any help would be appreciated 🙂 

366I: Book about French cafe in small town that almost went out of business

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The book featured a French cafe run by a husband and wife (with help from the young narrator) in a small town in France. The cafe was of amazing quality but had few patrons. The owner spent a lot on special, colorful plates and nice little planters at the door. Finally one day a famous person (maybe a restaurant critic) serendipitously arrived when the restaurant was about to fail for lack of customers. The owners used their amazing cooking skills and tasteful presentations to provide a simple and perfect meal of a freshly caught fish and some vegetables. The critic was blown away and the restaurant was saved.

366H: Horse story with Native American main character

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I had (in the 60s or 70s) a collection of horse stories. One was about a Native American young man named (I believe) Johnny, who was a handsome man who was “lame” (walked with a limp and was self conscious about it). He had a horse he named Bay-ee because the horse was sort of copper-colored like a penny. He won some sort of race with the horse. Would love to find this story again.

366G: Uncle Flees Disaster, Leaves Orphaned Children

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I’m looking for the title of a dystopian middle grade or YA book I read in the late 1970s or early 1980s. An orphaned girl (tween or early teens) and her younger brother live with their aunt and uncle in an apartment building in a big city. (Maybe in the UK? I have a vague feeling that some things didn’t seem familiar to this midwestern suburban kid.) The uncle is mean and doesn’t like having them there. There’s a disaster of some sort and the uncle flees with his family, leaving the niece and nephew to fend for themselves. There’s no power or water and when they run low on food they leave the apartment. The girl fills a canteen or bottle with water from the toilet tank, saying she was grateful that at least her uncle wouldn’t let her aunt use the cleaning pucks that turn the toilet water blue. Later there’s some sort of charismatic leader and evil government. I don’t even remember if it was a particularly good book. It just occurs to me sometimes and I’d like to remember the rest of the story.

366F: Fairy is kidnapped by witch and frozen

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I’m looking for a picture book that I cannot remember the name or author of. The story depicts a group of forest animals that spend time around a fairy (or heart of the forest). A depressed, skinny witch lives in the belly of a giant sharp tooth beast and has a black bird for a companion. For whatever reason she wants to have this fairy and keep her in a cage close to her heart, so she has the bird go fetch the fairy. The forest becomes dark and the animals of the forest seek out the help of another large animal to help them. This other large animal (an owl or wolf I think?) blows winter over the dark forest freezing the beast, the witch, and the fairy. Because the beast is unable to eat and the witch is unable to move the animals wander in to find them covered in frost and free the fairy to be with the forest again. I also think the beast was so big she had a house inside of it. Beyond that I forget what follows. Thank you for listening!

366E: Girl Trapped in Cistern

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Sometime in the period 1984-1988, when I was a child, my summer reading subscription (Weekly Reader?) sent me a novel about a girl who lives alone with her mother in a country house. One hot summer day she escapes her chores in the cellar where there is an old-fashioned cistern (unlidded concrete cylinder built into the floor). She climbs it to lie on the rim, but then falls in and remains trapped for hours because her yelling is unheard by her mother vacuuming two floors above. That’s all I remember!

366D: Anthropomorphic pastels at a cafe

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I am looking for a children’s book that I remember, featuring anthropomorphic oil pastels or chalks as characters, set in a cafe or restaurant where they spent time. It was somewhere between a “picture book” and a “chapter book” in terms of length and balance of illustrations vs. text — some pictures but mostly text, I think. In fact, I wouldn’t swear that it was intended for children, but it was appropriate and comprehensible to an elementary school student. The tone was somewhat serious and melancholic, with bohemian themes. The cafe may have closed or changed hands, or a character may have stopped coming or left town. It would have been published before 2002.