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362A: Monkey eating crackers

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I have very little to go on. I remember this book so fondly from my childhood. I would guess from middle school years. I remember just laughing and laughing about a passage from it while reading on a plane ride to England.
A young girl has a pet male monkey who is hidden in her bag or piece of luggage perhaps on an airplane or maybe a train. The monkey is eating some crackers I think and starts sort of spitting them. The description of it just had me laughing out loud. Sort of the words to describe the sound of it. Maybe ‘pffft’, no that is not right.
The girl may have been the daughter of a diplomat? I think the monkey may have snuck into her luggage and she hears him eating the crackers. I think bits of crackers come out of the piece of luggage as she opens it. I’m not sure though.
I do not know if the book was American or English. It had a mostly purple cover 🙄 and was hardback.
I know that is a minuscule amount of information to give you. Oh, I would have been in 8th grade in 1982 but moved to England after finishing 7th grade. I think it was a fairly newly written book.
I have always hoped that I would be able to remember more and be able to find it. I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the monkey or any of the other characters.

361Y: Emily’s Animals Join the Family

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Children’s picture book (title unknown) involving a blonde girl who brings home a menagerie of animals to live with her and her family. The animals were the basic variety e.g. dog, cat, bird, horse, etc. . . The illustrations I would describe as whimsical. The little girl’s name might have been Emily (asked a family member what they remembered, and they thought this but obviously could be wrong). The book was read between 2003-2007, it could have been published around or before this time. I’m located in Edmonton, Alberta so the book was at least likely published in North America. So far books that I can confirm aren’t it: Emily’s house, Tierparadies Emily & Co, Thanks for telling me, Emily

 

361X: Cutting the Sails Wrong

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I have a book I have been trying to remember for years now. This wasn’t a children’s book, and honestly it’s possible I’m misremembering something that was in a magazine or a literary journal or even a TV show or movie. I think it was a novel but it could’ve been a short story. I am 99% certain that I read this within a published physical book, but memory is weird! And that’s why I’m here.
So I remember this as being a sort of satirical, maybe Quixotic story with a ne’er-do-well protagonist. I think it was a first-person narrative. In the scenario I have lodged in my memory, the protagonist is trying to find work by any means he can, and he stumbles across a job opening with someone who makes sails for sailboats. There’s an interview in which the protagonist lies about having a lot of experience cutting and preparing sails (he has none) and the harried owner says something like ‘great, you’re hired’ and hands him a fancy sail cutting tool that he thinks he knows how to use. He leaves the protagonist alone in a room with a large roll of canvas, and the protagonist begins haphazardly slicing the canvas into large, rough triangles. The owner comes back after an hour or so and immediately sees that this guy has no idea what he is doing, and he shouts something like “You’ve ruined thousands of dollars of this premium canvas!” In my memory, this was a very, very funny scene.

361W: Japanese book about a boy who seeks a powerful sword from a dragon atop a mountain

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I don’t know how you guys do with a series compared to single books, as this may be memory of the plot being tied to all the books, but I will try to order what I can remember as I go. If I were to guess I’d say there’s between 3 and 6 books.

Firstly I believe the story starts in a village in Japan. I don’t remember if the main character is foreign or Japanese. But the village is attacked by either ninjas or samurai from the emperor/shogun. The main character flees and at some point is sent on a journey to find certain treasures (maybe pertaining to the elements? Fire, sky, water, and earth). I only say this because at some point he is tasked to swim underwater for some item (I think jewelry or a pearl?) and while seeking the item underwater is tested or attacked by either a mermaid or a dragon. I know during his adventure he’s being chased by some guy who I think dies on his horse?
As the story at this point diverges from the main characters’ journey to this bad guy in hell who is trapped there wishing for revenge. Eventually the guy in hell gets free by finding the strength in a maggot he manages to eat. He escapes hell and rejoins the world as an undead and eventually starts killing other people in his quest for revenge and grows an undead army. (I’m assuming this part is in the final book) The main character hears of this and is tasked with climbing a mountain to obtain a powerful sword guarded by a dragon. The dragon tests him and after some sort of battle and fire breathing let’s him have the sword in which the character wraps up the story by killing the undead guy again.
If you have any questions please let me know! It’s been bugging me that I can’t remember. During your search you may come across a series called Young Samurai which is 8 books. I’ve read that series recently so I know it is not that one at least.

361V: The Ungrateful Princess (Solved!)

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I don’t remember the name or author. I had this book as a child in the late 90s-early 2000s but it could be older. It had really beautiful illustrations with a cut paper kind of vibe? It was about a spoiled, selfish girl, maybe a princess. She drained all the water from a fountain and killed all the fish. And there was some kind of ceremony to find her a husband but she rejected all the gifts and was rude and she was sent away. She found a unicorn in a thorn bush and rescued him even though she got pricked by the thorns and tore her dress to bandage the unicorn’s leg and then she learned her lesson about being a jerk.

361U: Purple hair girl that lived on a moon

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I am looking for a children’s book that I used when I was an elementary school counselor. It was about a red king and a blue king that fought over who was better, the red-haired people or the blue-haired people. A little girl that lived there revealed at the end her purple hair. I remember she kept it covered with a hood, and I think had a strange name (that may have been the title). I have been trying to find the name of the book for so long and I have no idea what happened to my copy. Thank you so much for the help!

361T: Jasper the music stealer

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This is a 1970s children’s book featuring a kind of hippie spy/hero who (may have) flown around on a magic cloud and had a base (?) in the Himalayas. He had an enemy called Jasper, who stole (all of the) music.

I heard this as an audio book on a cassette (where I recall a song with the words ‘Jasper, Jasper, where has all the music gone?’)

361S: Tiny Grandma Comes Out of Phone

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I am looking for a children's book

- Guessing it may be written in 1970’s to 1980’s (I read it in the 80’s)

- A little boy is being babysat and ignored by his sitter. He calls his grandmother and falls asleep when he’s on the phone with her.

- He dreams that a tiny version of his grandmother slides out of the old rotary phone, and dances and plays with him all night.

361R: Portal Fantasy Novel for Kids

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I’m trying to find a book that I read when I was in elementary school.  Unfortunately, I don’t recall many helpful details about the book—including its title and author—but I do remember loving the book and recommending it to a non-reading friend who also loved it.  I would very much like to find it so that I can buy it for my daughter.

The following is all I can remember about the book:

–It is a portal fantasy novel about a boy and possibly also a girl who somehow enter another world in order to help save a troubled kingdom or land (not very unique, I know).

–The plot involves a castle, mountains, wolves, and a race against time.  Magical/mystical talking(?) wolves play a role in the book, from what I remember.  I believe they were either the antagonists or the servants of the antagonist.

–From what I remember of the cover, it has a white border or partial border around it with a colorful collage of images from the book against a dark background.  I believe that a castle, mountains, and wolves were all present in this cover collage.

–I checked out the book from my elementary school library when I was in either third or fourth grade, but I believe the target audience of the book is late elementary readers (4th to 6th grade?).

–I read this book in the mid-1980s (between 1983 and 1985?), so it was published prior to that.

–I do not think that it was recent publication at that time, though it wasn’t a very old book either.  My guess is that it was published between 1950 and 1985—probably in the 1970s.

–It is a fairly long chapter book (perhaps 200 to 300 pgs?).

–The copy I checked out from my library had a small trim size, but was fairly thick with small type.

–It was written and published in English, probably either from the U.S. or England.

–It is a stand-alone novel, not part of a longer series.

–I do not believe it is a well-known or famous book.  I have not, for example, run across it on lists of best fantasy novels of the 20th century.

–The title is strange, or, at the very least, not particularly appealing to an elementary school reader because I remember telling my non-reading friend to read it despite the odd title.

–I think the title might have the words in it like “nowhere,” “other,” “land,” or “world.”

–The letter “O” also stands out in my memory as an important part of the title.