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145B: Vegetarian Meals Embarrass Girl (solved)

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A girl in middle(?) school finds out that her mother has become vegetarian during the summer and wants her to do the same. The kid is so embarrassed by the new style of lunches her mom makes that she starts eating under the bleachers.   People start eating with her because she tells them that she’s part of a club, and they all eventually have dinner at her house and the girl decides that she’s not embarrassed anymore.   A few days later, her mom (who the girl describes as changing her mind frequently) decides that she wants to start eating meat again. The girl gets upset because she’d just started getting used to things. She and her mom discuss this and decide that from now on the girl can mostly choose her own meals. 

145A: Unicorn History (solved)

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This was a book read in the late 80s which presented the unicorn as history instead of myth. The drawings were in brown and white and done to look as though they were very old.   The basis of the book was the unicorn as an angelic creature, and one of the stories described it fighting demons disguised as dragons.   I’ve already checked the books of Bruce Coville and Jane Yolen – nothing. 

 

144I: Cabbage air freshener and a magical world?

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YA or kids’ book, fantasy or magical realism.  Protagonist is a young girl.  She gets sent to the store to buy something with a wick — either an air freshener or a candle?  The one she buys is the last on the shelf, it’s in a dented can, and it smells like something you wouldn’t want air freshener to smell like.  I think it’s either cabbages or broccoli.  It’s also magical, and either gives her access to a magical world or brings her a friend/companion from a magical world.  That’s all in the book’s set-up, like in the first chapter.  No idea what happens from there.

 

144F: Children’s book of short stories about a boy named Charles – British? (Solved)

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I am looking for a  book of short stories I was very fond of as a child. Unfortunately, I do not have a title. The book was published before 1974 because I remember reading it before starting kindergarden. It was a slightly large book with burnt orange cloth boards. It was probably British. The book contained several short stories all related, most of them circled around a young boy named Charles. He would visit his Grandmother by the sea or play in the garden. Sometimes he was with other children exploring by the sea picking up sea glass and pebbles. One story was told by the point of view of a small toad and his little house in the garden and living under mushrooms. The most memorable story for me was a sad tale about a set of Russian nesting dolls that a child left standing up on a sea wall and the waves swept them off the wall one by one. The book contained pencil sketches depicting scenes from each chapter. My mother believes she bought the book at the Creative Playthings factory outlet in Princeton, NJ, but that might not be the case.

 

144D: Apprentice Witch summons frog-like helper (solved)

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Checked out of the library in the early 80s.
Hardback, tan cover with a cauldron on the front, green smoke coming out of the caldron and wrapping around the back.
An apprentice witch’s mistress is accused of some crime by other witches and taken away. The apprentice tries to find the real culprit. She is able to summon a frog-like helper who knows what is going on. Froggie at first cannot answer her questions, but hints broadly. She finds the next part of the spell and he is able to answer “yes” or “no”. Then she finds the last part and he can give full answers. (There is a wand or a book involved, I think)? If I’m not getting this confused with a different book, at some point she allies herself with two children from the circus who are trapeze artists.

 

144C: Children’s book regarding rainy day and umbrellas

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I am looking for a children’s books that was probably published in the 1980s. I am 35 years old now so if this was a new book when I was a child, this would have been maybe around 1988, give or take a few years.
PLOT: What I remember about the book was that it involved a child going to school on a rainy day. When the child arrived at school, they saw all of the umbrellas of the other children lined up outside the classroom. I remember a page (actually I think the illustration covered two pages) depicting all of the different colors and patterns of the umbrellas, all dripping outside the classroom. The style of the illustrations seemed to be like watercolor paintings. I don’t remember anything else about the book, only that the rainy day and the umbrellas were at the center of the story.