Author Archives: admin

364K: Rebecca’s Island (possibly)

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Possible title that I remember is Rebecca’s Island. The plot is as follows:
Mother and young daughter flee an abusive or unhappy marriage. They move to the grandmother’s home I believe. She lives with a lake behind the house and Rebecca paddles a canoe to a small island in the middle of the lake. She makes the island her sort of getaway from the troubles of her home life, paddling to the island on a daily basis. There is an ominous feeling to strange people showing up. Maybe the people are looking to find the mother and daughter for the abusive husband/father.
This was read to my elementary school class maybe in the mid to late 1980s. I got the flu and was not in school to learn how the book ended.

364J: Russian (?) siblings go live on a farm when orphaned (Solved!)

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This is actually two books that I remember reading many times in the 70’s. These were two novels. The plot was that two siblings were orphaned and went to live on a farm. Maybe they were Russian or Ukrainian? I remember the description of the girl being given a special costume to wear that had many many skirts. I also remember a description of the Wax, Dyed Eggs at Easter. I think they went to the special fair and got a very decorated cookie. The Farm was stocked with lots of food, including sausages hung in the pantry. The second novel was a little darker, because I believe there was a war.
Thank you for any help you can give with these two books.

364I: Wizard with prism brings color to gray world 

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Description: Likely published in 80s to early 90s. Educational content about prismatic light and rainbow colors. Illustrated story book. I remember it being hard cover, but may have been published both ways.
World is grey and wizard/magician/sorcerer brings prism to introduce light and color to the people. Takes children characters (more than one) on the journey to discover the colors of the rainbow throughout the world which may be better defined as a kingdom. I think there was a king and a castle involved. 
I’ve located a similar book titled The Color Wizard by Barbara Brenner. It is very close to the story line, where there is a magical person painting the colors of the rainbow. In the book I’m searching for there are children and a prism is involved in the story. I don’t remember the magical one inhabiting the castle, but as a visitor. 
Thank you to anyone who is able to contribute to finding this!

364F: Greek/Roman epic – a tough one!

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Hi there! Been looking for this for YEARS. Please bear with me as I read it in the 90’s and you know how memory goes.

Read it as a paperback. NOT a bodice ripper like romance. Was a Greek/Roman epic. NOT the book Empress of Rome. From the perspective of a prostitute from when she was a girl through adulthood and old age. Not necessarily first person but maybe.  She went to a courtesan-like school to learn the arts- painting, singing etc. I only remember like two very specific parts of the story.

**TRIGGER WARNING- Weird old school brothel tricks and sex talk**

She “ruins” herself or some such thing with a man and she needs to be presented as a virgin to some old guy or important man whatever. There’s a part where an older woman has her put a chicken egg filled with blood or something up there so that when the chicken egg breaks during sex it’ll appear as though it’s hymen blood. Don’t ask why that stuck with me, it just did.

There’s a bunch of intrigue and scandal. A bad guy is in it for sure. There’s a bunch of parties and a nice old guy painter I think. And the prostitute/courtesan is very well renowned. She falls in love with a younger soldier and eventually is together with him for years. At the end of the book she’s dying in bed and he’s holding her hand and she dies with a smile or some such thing because he had no idea how old she was because she took such good care care of herself.

Pretty thick book. Cover had a Greek/Roman depiction (maybe a man and woman? maybe a Greek building in back?) and was creme colored for the most part, I think. Had maybe a bit of red and black lettering. Books was very much late 1960’s-1980’s

I really hope you can help!! Thanks so much

Welcome to Stump the Bookseller by Loganberry Books!

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Welcome to Stump the Bookseller blog!

Stump the Bookseller is a service offered by Loganberry Books to reconnect people to the books they love but can’t quite remember.

In brief (for more detailed information see our About page), people can post their memories here, and the hivemind goes to work. After all, the collective mind of bibliophiles, readers, parents and librarians around the world is much better than just a few of us thinking. Together with these wonderful Stumper Magicians, we have a nearly 50% success rate in finding these long lost but treasured books. The more concrete the book description, the better the success rate, of course.  It is a labor of love to keep it going, and there is a modest fee.  Please see the How To page to find price information and details on how to submit your Book Stumper and payment.

Thanks to everyone involved to keep this forum going: our blogging team, the well-read Stumper Magicians, the many referrals, and of course to everyone who fondly remembers the wonder of books from their childhood and wants to share or revisit that wonder.  Isn’t it amazing, the magic of a book?

364D: Children’s or YA Science Fiction—Girl goes to Mars, is orphaned during trip (Solved!)

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Read this hardcover from the library in the late 70s. Teenage girl with dead mother, lives with her aunt or grandmother but spends summers with her dad. When girl is near the end of high school her dad announces he has a wonderful opportunity–he has to make a trip to Mars, and he can bring along one person, which will be her. She doesn’t want to go because she had her next few years all planned out and it will be a year or more before they get back. She sulks and yells, but is told she IS going. On board, her poor attitude does not win her any friends or allies among the people she meets. There is a small group of other children and young people on the ship, but she alienates them with her constant complaining and her attitude that people who live on Mars are backward and ignorant. One young man who is returning home to Mars takes on trying to improve her attitude as a personal challenge. When her father dies during the trip, leaving her with no return ticket, the young man’s family unofficially adopts her and helps her adapt to Mars. She enrolls in college there, and generally drops her snobbish, “Everything Earth is superior” viewpoint. I think at the end of the book she is faced with the one-time chance to return to Earth, or to stay with the people she has come to think of as her new family. There was probably a romance between the girl and the boy who “adopts” her. 

I think it was shelved near the Beverly Cleary books, so author’s last name probably began with either C or  a letter close to it.

364C: Woman and Husband Separated By Plane Accident, She and Others Survive on Island

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I was reading a book on my Kindle, and it just disappeared and does not show in my history. I’ve tried searching through google but can’t find anything.
The book was about a couple who decided to go on a vacation for a honeymoon they never had. The husband’s name was Chris. They flew out of O’Hare to LA. The flight was delayed because of snow so they just missed their connecting flight out of LA. They decided to fly standby and made it on another flight however, they couldn’t sit together. 1 seat was in first class and the other was in economy. Chris gave his wife the first-class seat. She sat next to a movie star whose name was Jack. Sometime into the flight the plane encountered a bizarre storm that ripped the back of the plane off. Some first-class passengers survived and were in a raft. Eventually the survivors found an island. The pilot died in the raft. A passenger who is a nurse was in the raft and cared for the survivors.  They built a shelter on the island. The wife (sorry drawing a blank on her name) wanted to try and save her marriage with this trip, “felt” her husband was alive. While on the island about 3 months the survivors thought they saw a ship but couldn’t signal the ship. One survivor thought it looked like a pirate ship. They also commented that they could never see satellites circling at night. They decided to take shifts at the top of the island to signal ships. 
This is where the book disappeared, I REALLY a want to find and finish this book.