Author Archives: admin

355J: Twins are Split Up and Mother Becomes Town Outcast

I’m looking for a book that I read quite some time ago. The most that I can remember is that the mother was a town outcast, had boy/girl twins, one “died” and was raised by another family. Boy stayed with mom who became town crazy woman outside town. Girl finds out somehow she’s adopted and goes back to figure everything out, and gets involved with a local man. ♥️♥️

355H: YA book with puffins and an island (Solved!)

I read a book in the late 70s or early 80s.  I think it was a 60s/early 70s book, but that’s little more than a guess.
A few years later a children’s section librarian helped me find the book again and she knew exactly what I was talking about.  Whether that speaks to the popularity of the book, or the quality of the librarian I don’t know.  🙂
The story is a number of children having adventures on an island while their parents are busy.  Researchers I think?
Puffins are involved somehow, and I THINK that is part of the name, although whether it’s the name of the book or the island I’m not sure.
They get to the island via seaplane and I think there was a seaplane on the cover.
There were at least 2 books, maybe more.
Not much, I know.  🙂
It’s funny how strong the memory of loving the book is, yet so few details remain.

355G: Vampire Horror Anthology

The book I am looking for is a horror anthology of Vampire fiction published a minimum of eleven years ago, maximum twenty-one. The book itself contains two stories I remember, one better than the other. The first is about a cantor at a failing synagogue who is contacted by a lapsed Jewish man whose son has fallen victim of a vampire. The cantor is called upon to help, and tries several methods which do not work, and it comes about that only the father is Jewish, not the son, and the son has neither converted nor done his bat mitzvah. The cantor then does an emergency conversion, then an emergency mitzvah, and the vampire is exorcised. The story is set in the modern-day, maybe in the 90s.
The second story I remember less. It is told in the first person by a farmer on a failing farm about how a farm girl he hires (who he believes is from Pennsylvania) ends up in a sexual relationship with the farmer and his son. As the relationships continue, the farm fails, because “the plowing didn’t get done because we were plowing her”. It is a very explicit story and ends with a wiser townswoman realizing the girl is a vampire and stealing her. The man telling the story realizes the girl is from Transylvania, not Pennsylvania, and that is when the shoe drops for the reader that the girl was eating these two men slowly, hence why they were getting thinner and hungrier as time went on while she stayed plump and beautiful.
I read this book when I was about sixteen, and the story about the Rabbi stuck with me. It is the piece I’m most interested in finding, but sadly the book seems to be lost to me. I apologize for the explicit nature of the second story, again, I read the book at sixteen and it was the only story of its type I had engaged with at that time, therefore it has stuck in my head.

355F: Looking for old children’s chapter book about a squirrel (Solved!)

When I was a child, this would have been sometime between 1990-1995, I borrowed a fiction chapter book twice from my local library that I cannot remember the title of. At the time, the book was old, but I was a kid so it may not have been THAT old. I think it may have been written sometime around the 1950s-70s. It was a story about a boy who takes care of a squirrel. I think that there was a red squirrel on the cover, and the title of the book may have been the name of the squirrel but I’m not certain. I think the book had a bittersweet ending with the squirrel going back to live in the wild. I’ve not been able to find it on a google search so perhaps you can help!

355E: Young Boy Begins Broadcasting Career (Solved!)

One of my favorite children’s books, from the late 1950’s or early 60’s.
I thought that the title was “T.V.Jones” … but the only thing I found was a 60’s cartoon by that name.
This was the story of a young boy who gets a job in a Television station … and his beginning a career in broadcasting.
Certainly not a big seller, and not really well written … but it spoke to me as a young boy,  and it started my interest in communications.

355D: Girl Spends Day With Mom, Boy Spends Day With Dad

I’m looking for a children’s book that I had in the mid 1970’s.  It was a hardcover book and I believe it was oversized.  The ‘first’ story was about a child (believe it was a girl) spending the day with her mommy.  You then flipped the book upside down & over and there was a ‘second’ story about the child spending the day with his/her daddy and they went to the zoo.  I remember a picture of them looking in the animal exhibit and the child is holding a balloon and I think they get ice cream.  I’m pretty sure it’s people and not animals (i.e. not the Mercer Meyer little critter book).

355C: Silly Goose Forgets to Invite Friends to Party (Solved!)

I’m delighted by this site and have a book that I’d enjoy seeing again. When I was in kindergarten in 1955, my favorite story was of a goose who decides to have a party for her friends. She cleans her house, and cooks and bakes up a storm. But no one shows up! Then she hears her friends chattering outside at the bus stop and learns that she forgot to invite them. They come in and enjoy her feast, so all ends well.

Obviously, this was a long time ago, so I don’t remember the name. Any one have a clue?

355A: Orphan Girl Has Pick of Families (Solved!)

An older orphan girl gets lucky and gets to stay with a few families over summer break. On her first train ride a nice gentlemen buys her an orange. He never eats his and  gives it to her before he gets off.
She stays with an older woman and has a lovely time. At the end of summer all of the families she stays with want to adopt her she chooses the older woman.  She thinks herself simple and not that pretty.