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197E: Weather Witch and Orphan Girl (Solved)

I’m pretty sure this book takes place in England and is about a girl who has magical abilities. She lives in a town with magical residents. The mayor is able to control the weather. She is being pursued by dark forces and the entire town might also be compromised by this danger. She is learning magic from an older wizard. There’s a scene in an underground library. They may have the ability to time travel, but definitely the ability to transport themselves with magic. There’s a scene at an abandoned boardwalk (in Brighton I believe) and a carousel is there as well. I think it was storming at this scene. In the town, the magic is used to whitewash the fences and keep things sparkly white and beautiful. Each house has a footbridge due to a stream running through town and a garden with a whitewashed fence. The girl knows the mayor. She might be an orphan.

197D: Mattressland Adventure

My dad read this book in England in the late 40s or early 50s. It’s about a boy who is sick in the summer and he’s hot in bed (possibly in an attic bedroom). His grandmother keeps piling blankets on to him despite his being too hot. He eventually falls asleep, but when he wakes up, he’s not in his bed. He’s in a world that’s covered in a mattress (i.e. the ground is a mattress). He stabs a knife into the ground and feathers come streaming out. He has adventures in this magical place. My dad is the one who was delivering plot points, and that’s all he can remember about the book. Publication will not be later than the late 1950s.

197C: Man awakes from cryogenic sleep to a dystopic future

I’m looking from a book that I think would have been published in the 80s, maybe very early 90s (I read it in a school library in 1994)

It’s a first-person narrative about a man who was experimentally frozen in modern times and then woken up in the future (100 years maybe). There’s an ostensibly benign non-elected government in charge now and society is divided into worker-classes. He’s a curiosity when he is un-frozen, so is assigned to the highest class of citizen.

Over the course of the book he begins a relationship with a woman and finds out that (surprise) the luxury lifestyles of the upper class are sustained only by terrible exploitation of the lower. He makes plans to escape the country (or maybe just city) but as they’re fleeing he finds out she’s been replaced by an android version of herself (this is how dissenters to the regime are removed). He knows it’s not her because when he holds her hand he can’t feel the scar on her finger.

The only concrete detail I can remember, beyond the scar on the finger, is at one point he is explaining how voting worked to the woman, and he says that even though people at the time complained about politicians, at least everyone had a part in the political process.

197B: Cat runs away about being dressed up like a baby

Cat is owned by a brother and sister. They constantly dress him up like baby, even putting him in a stroller. He decides that he’s had enough and he runs away. He goes somewhere cold (maybe Alaska, or somewhere similar). He then goes ice fishing and catches a fish. He has no one to be with. He realizes he misses the kids and goes home to them. At the end up the book he is all dressed up and says something about this not being so bad. It was made around the 90’s. The cat was either a tabby or grey.

197A: Man in modern day is struck by lightning and transported 1000 years back in time

Man in modern day is struck by lightning and transported 1000 years back in time to same spot. Survives animal attack but barely. Nursed and mentored by old ancient native american. Man communicates with present day wife through cave writing which is found by archaeologists in present. Archaeologists date writing and find it is authentic but still skeptical as writing is modern English. Man never gets home to present day. Starts new life in past with native american woman. Thank you!

196I: Uncle Gives Boy Magic Gifts, Other Magical Things Happen Too (SOLVED)

I recall this being a series, but it may be a stand-alone book — in it a boy gets a magic pencil from his uncle that will only allow him to write correct answers even if he tries to write the wrong answer. He is ready for a big test, then his dog chews the pencil. In another chapter his infant brother is supposed to be in a TV commercial, but the boy reads the dictionary while watching him and the baby says big words like “grappling hook.” A childhood favorite I would love to share with my daughter!

 

196H: Dark, Beautiul Picture Book Series (Solved)

I’m looking for a picture book with beautiful, lifelike illustrations. Picture book, but dark and almost adult in nature. There were two in the series.
The first had a small blond girl, with braids over her head, who was the rightful queen of a kingdom ruled by a dark tyrant. At one point she confronts the tyrant by landing on his dinner table, I think. The tyrant might wear a weird mask. He’s dressed all in black. She has friends who wanted to help her get her kingdom back. They set up a system where they would light a fire on the upper level of the castle when it was safe for them all to start their attack. One man was stopped, but is so dedicated to her and the cause, that he lit himself on fire instead and jumped from the roof.

In the sequel, she has a baby (still blond braids roped over her head), and a soldier tries to lead her through the snow to safety. I think they all die, but I’m not sure it’s obvious.
Beautiful illustrations.

196F: Stuck in the Snow Children’s book

The book I am searching for is a children’s picture book from the 1960s/1970s. It was about a big snow storm. Lots of people kept getting stuck in the snow storm, and they went to a cozy little house (I believe it was up on a hill) to wait it out. While they were there they ate biscuits and all became friendly together. This is all I remember!

I would love to read this book to my daughter.