Author Archives: admin

357O: Scandinavian folk tale collection (Solved!)

I am looking for a book that was a series of short stories or collection of Scandinavian (?) folk tales. It could possibly be classified as young adult but likely for a younger age range (10-14). The usual searches (Norwegian, Swedish, Scandinavian folktales) have not turned up the book, so perhaps it was a collection of general folk/magical themed stories. There were pictures throughout book. They were not in a cartoon style but drawn and I believe one picture showed a cave and/or beach. I only remember these drawings being in black and white. There was at least one story about the sea. The version I had was paperback. Cover art: White background, young girl (face of a young girl). It is was nymph like, or some type of fairy. Very g-rated. There was some green on the cover. It was more modern looking than the usual cover art for Nordic folk tale books, however, an overall flowy feel to the cover. Timing: I received it sometime between 1998-2002. It was likely purchased in Canada at either McNally’s Robinson bookstore or an independent seller.

357N: Boy Commits Suicide Because Of Parent’s Abuse After Getting Best Girl Friend Pregnant

I need help finding a book I read in high-school. The details I remember are:
The lead was female high-school aged. The book was based in Australia, she was good/best friends with a boy and I think they would catch up at a particular spot like a barn. I think he ends up going to private school and is good at sports or swimming. His mother’s meek and his dad is aggressive. They end up having sex and then I think the abuse from his father becomes too much and he kills himself. The girl ends up pregnant and her grandmother tried to help her by giving her an awful drink (think I remember it being described as tasting like Marmite) but it doesn’t work. She has the baby and the boy’s parents find out and the boy’s mother tries to help her somehow. I think they all end up in Sydney. I can’t remember how it ends. For some reason the name Sophie keeps popping in to my head but I don’t remember if that was an author or one of the characters or nothing.
Let me know if you think of anything it could be.

357M: Ordinary Man Caught Up In Biker Gang

Around 30 years ago I read a book about an ordinary man that gets caught up with a violent biker gang. The leader was beefy and wore a black leather vest over his bare torso; he ends up murdered and is buried with his hog.

It isn’t The Devil Rides Out.
The cover I believe may have been a dark blue representing a night sky and a biker. It may have involved pagan rituals.  There was something about the guy watching the goings on of the gang in some sort of disused warehouse.

357J: Marshmallow fluff and peanut butter sandwiches and mom’s note (Solved!)

Early 90s children’s book. Book about children making marshmallow fluff and peanut butter sandwiches. They make a mess and find their mom’s note that says where she has gone to. The note has fluff all over it and they are only able to see a few letters. They go about trying to decode the note, imagining all the places she could be. Finally, it ends that it says she went to the pet store and comes back with a dog!

357I: A 1960’s book about a lost lamb

Looking for a fiction YA (perhaps adult) book from the early to mid 60’s that I read in junior high. I was given the book as a present. It’s about a lamb that gets lost in a forest/jungle. I remember that it had a jaguar, panther or puma that befriended the lamb and helped keep it safe. There were no illustrations that I recall; strictly text. It was a fairly long novel, about the length of the Harry Potter novels. The book had a green hardcover with the lamb and trees on it. I want to say that the lamb on the cover was black, but can’t be sure. Does anyone remember this book? I know it sounds vaguely like The Jungle Book, but that really isn’t it.

357H: The Monster Encyclopedia

I don't know the name of it. It was a book of black and white sketch like drawings of different pretend monsters, but not cryptids. They may have been monsters that looked like household objects, one of them was possibly a coat hanger type thing. Each page had a description of a monster and then a black and white picture/sketch of them. It was definitely published before 2015 and was meant for either children or preteens.

357G: The Little Old Lady (Solved!)

This might actually be in the title of the book. It may have been published in the 70s or before but definitely not later than the early 80s. I believe it was a book of children's poems about an old lady and one of them was "There was an old lady who wanted to ski, she wouldn't take lessons - it's easy said she! She tried and she tried but she just couldn't go. Nobody told her she had to have snow."

357F: Wizard vs. Seriously Overgrown Plant

I’m looking for a short story that was published in a compilation of sci-fi stories, probably somewhere between 1995-2005. Sci-fi short story was about wizard and a plant that was taking over the earth. The wizard was trying to kill the plant to save the world, but no matter what he tried, he couldn’t do anything about the plant and it ended up taking over the world. Wizard also had a globe or orb that was an exact replica of the earth. The orb displayed live and the wizard could zoom in and see anything and anyone and what they were doing. The only thing that didn’t show up on the globe was the globe.