Author Archives: admin

198G: Girl communicates with an old lady (ghost?) with a pet dalmatian. (Solved!)

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Girl communicates with an old lady (ghost?) with a pet dalmatian. I read it 20+ years ago, I’m assuming it’s 100-200 pages long. There was a young girl who buried a bird, and maybe tied notes to trees. Found a passageway to a hazy, smoke-filled room covered in old throw pillows. An old lady was there dressed in ratty fancy clothes and gaudy jewelry with a long smoking stick. There was a dalmatian somewhere in there too. I think she communicated with the old lady by burying letters in the ground. Maybe she found the dalmatian dead at the end? I read it at the same time as “The BFG.” I was young so some of the details my be completely fabricated!! Hope you can help!

198F: Hot air balloon moving book

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Hi! Looking for a childhood book, I grew up in the 80’s. It had a cut out hot air balloon that moved from page to page under flaps and through slots. The premise was children searching for something (a kite I believe?) I remember the hot air balloon cut out being red and yellow striped (and in our familys case very well loved and taped many times). The reader had the balloon follow a dotted path on each page I believe, so that it landed in the right pocket or slot. I dont remember much more, hoping you can help me I’ve been searching for a long time

198E: Picture book 1960s, tic tac toe game

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We borrowed this strange book many times from the library when my sons were small in the late 1960s. It was an American publication, as the creatures played ‘tic tac toe’ which we would call noughts & crosses. Quite a large picture book – little text I think, very detailed soft grey illustrations with small animal characters in greyscale photographic collage on (pencil-drawn?) landscapes. A very peculiar book indeed, dream-like with a minimal plot and not like anything else I’ve ever seen.

198C: The Changeling (I think).

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I read this book in the 70s. It was a chapter book. I’m a little vague on the plot, but I think a few kids get sent away to the country (might have been England wartime a la Lion Witch and Wardrobe). They go outside, and they are in a different world. There are SO many books named Changeling that I’ve been unable to find it. It is NOT the Snyder book.

198B: Dog saves cat from fire

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My brothers and I are trying to recall the name of a book that we read when we were small in the 1950’s. Of course, we would also like to find a copy of it.
The book was about a dog (perhaps a German Shepherd) and a cat who were “friendly enemies.” My oldest brother thinks the cat might have been named Queenie and she might have had three legs. They lived with a family in a cabin near the woods. The story ends with a big forest fire where the dog, despite the abuse he took from the cat, saved the cat from the fire in an heroic sort of way.
For whatever reason, this story rekindles lots of emotion for us. My oldest brother is going through chemo and I am hoping we can find this story for him.

197H: Boy survives wilderness attack and tries to save friend

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I used to read this as a kid so I’m assuming was published pre-1980. At the beginning the setting is of a boy and a man in the wilderness (in a cave?)(set in 1700s-1800s). Either as part of the initial story or as an event that already occurred the man is attacked by 2(?) other men and left to die. The boy makes it out alive to a town and initially recuperates in a feather bed (there was a lengthy description of the bed). He then returns to the house where he lives (step child or orphan?) and after going upstairs hears his mean stepfather(?) talking with the very men that were the attackers. They describe returning to the scene to recover some loot (maybe to finish the job or kill someone else?). The boy escapes to try to beat the men to the destination and provide a warning, cannot remember how it ends.

197G: Boy captured by Native Americans in Colonial America (Solved)

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I used to read this as a kid so I’m assuming was published pre-1980. At the beginning the setting is the American Colonies during the French & Indian War and it describes a Native American messenger running between tribes with a bead belt (belt contains a message in the beadwork).

I don’t remember how it happens but the main character (pre-teen/young teen boy) is captured, goes through the gauntlet of the tribe and is then adopted. One of the scenes I remember is of his new father shaving/plucking his scalp to give him a mohawk.

At the end of the book the American Revolution has started and the boy has linked back up with his family (brother & sister?) and is on raft going down a river. I think they were headed to a fort, there may have been a scene that described the fort occupants melting metal for bullets.

The copy I had may have had a tortoise on the outside cover (no just jacket).

197F: Orphan gilrl and janitor´s son rescue children from beeing stolen their hearts and turned into ravens / crows

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I´m looking for an english Children´s book, which my aunt used to read (in it´s german translation) before 1960. As long as she remembers is the story about an orphan child (female). This girl is sent to her uncle who lives in some kind of castle or gloomy manor house on an island. A janitor, who´s gatehouse lies at the end of a tunnel and wolves seem to play an importend role. A vicious man steals the hearts of the children in the village and turnes them into ravens / crows. The girl contracts a friendship to the son of the janitor and they rescue the children. The story brings in mind A. Lindgrens „Mio my son“ or J, Aiken „The Wolves of Willoughby Chase“ but it´s none of them.