Author Archives: admin

363A: Little Match Girl Gets Pennies From Heaven

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I have been searching for a children’s book since I saw it in a catalog when I was expecting my second child in 1996.  The story is very similar to the Little Match Girl, but I loved it because instead of dying, pennies literally rain down on the girl and she does not die.  I ran into an employee of a book store several years later and she said she had the book as a child and it was titled “Pennies from Heaven”.  I have not been able to locate this book by the possible title or the description of the story.  Thanks for your help!

362Z: Younger Brother Joins Trapper Brother, Gets Caught in Snowstorm

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The book we’re looking for is about two brothers. The younger brother joins the older brother who is a trapper because the parents die of some sickness. The story is about them during the fur trapping days and their struggles to survive. They fight Blackfoot (I think) Indians. The younger brother really wants to get a Hawkins rifle like his older brother. They get trapped in a snowstorm and they get ready to eat their moccasins. I think the younger brother is like 12 or 13 or 14 and he wants to be like his big brother, who is in his early 20’s. The book was light brown with a hardbound cover.

362Y: Girls in 1940’s International Boarding School

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Seeking a book published probably in ‘40’s about girls at an international boarding school. Two sisters have problems adjusting, one wants to be like French girl Mimi who has black hair and wears red. Both girls eventually adjust with youngest who is a tomboy having a boyfriend who gives her Marron glaces. There is a plot involving skiing. This book belonged to my aunt and I probably read it in the mid-70’s and it was old even then. I think there was a character named Berthe or Bertha.

362X: Children’s David Lee Roth Short Story (Solved!)

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I’m looking for a children’s book of short stories I received as a gift in the 80s. I think the front cover had a photo of an eagle with people standing on it. It may have been a blue cover.


I do remember one of the short stories was about two sisters in a fight. The younger sister accidentally drew a pen mark on her older sister’s David Lee Roth poster and when she tried to erase it she rubbed a hole through.

362W: Princess Escapes Maze, Slays Dragon

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Looking for a fantasy book probably published before 1995, with a female protagonist, some form of princess I think. Early in the book she is caught in some sort of maze and manages to get out with some sort of dimensional (vorpal) sword? But the thing I definitely remember is that in the end she slays a dragon and collects the last drop of its heart’s blood as some sort of magical stone. Thanks!

362V: Robot Follows Guy Forever

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A large, slow-walking robot is after a guy who has something the robot wants (or he’s after the guy). The robot doesn’t walk around homes or buildings to get to him, but leaves a path of destruction by walking through them, killing people along the way. No matter where the guy goes, the robot will follow.
JUMP TO THE END: 
The solution to keep everyone safe is the authorities used a large warehouse and lured the robot to it. A camper, loaded with everything you need to live, had the guy (or the item) in the camper. Because the robot walked so slowly, they were able to drive in a circle and the robot followed forever.

362U: 1980s British teens in love novel (Solved!)

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1980s British novel about working-class teens in love
I think the title was the names of the two characters, like “Frankie & Tina” (but not that.) (But “Tina” might be right.)

The novel was for adults, but it was about teenagers, and I read it as an American child in the early to mid 1980s. It was about two working-class teens coming of age who fall in love. It may have been an interracial romance, or possibly the girl on the cover just had darker skin in the drawing. I think they got married. They may have also had a baby. I think there was a lot of dialect or slang. It was a bit gritty and had vivid detail about their jobs and things like that, but it was pretty cheerful, not like a “kitchen sink” drama. It could have been an earlier book reprinted in the ’80s and I’m starting to think it could have been a British reprint of an Australian book. Basically starting to overthink everything. It is not the Kevin & Sadie series or Oscar & Lucinda.
The cover was a crayon-style drawing of the two characters. The way I remember it, it had a dark blue background on the cover and an orange spine. This makes me think Penguin (but not one the series that all have the same covers.) The cover art had very similar style to these covers:

362R: Wild Manipulation / Duplication Box Adventures

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Science Fiction / Fantasy

Originally read in ebook format on a nook or kindle around 2010 or 2011. The book was free. No history on services.

Man Travels the Universe using software

The book starts off on a ship with a team of people headed to Mars (it is possible the book started with them there). The team is given or find a box which they find has symbols and words inside it. The entire team studies the item. They find they can replicate items by putting it in the box. The main character discovers how to manipulate the symbols and words, which he relates to programming BASIC, to do different things. Together with a female teammate they decide to terraform Mars by opening a path to earths atmosphere. They then head back to earth using the device (instant transport).

They are a couple for a while on earth where they figure out how to duplicate money and do some other fun things. At some point they are discovered by someone. A “creator” who invites them to their place somewhere in time / space. The creator has traveled time and space and acquired all sorts of historical documents and brought interesting people to his home.  He talks about an experiment with sports players and taking Babe Ruth out of his era and putting him in the current era and Babe Ruth still excels in the current era. He also talks about viewings of history through a pinhole in time which allows him to see but the people he is viewing in history to not know.

Up to this point the main character has been traveling with the female companion. The “creator” breaks them up by introducing the man to an actress that had died in the 1930’s to 1950’s but he pulled her out of one of the realities and brought her to his home.  He ends up sleeping with the actress. The woman companion knows what happened. They then break up. The “creator” says it was for the best as it would never have lasted.  Tells him he can go wherever, whenever he wants and if the actress wants to go, she can.  While here the creator also transfers his brain to a younger body of his using the “syntax”.  The ‘creator” gives the man a pda (older style tablet) device that has pre-loaded code written to accomplish specific tasks, like duplication, portals. The man and the actress travel back to his current time and create a movie with the actress as the lead role (even through in this reality she has been dead for years). Can’t remember much after this.

There was a sequel to the book where a different man finds a pda in a bar bathroom and figures out how to use it and goes on some epic quests. The original owner of the pda was placed in a coma and was hospitalized.  in the second book was trying to have the universe re-written with his DNA encoded but a programmer said it was not possible.