This is about a two-book series that was likely written between 1975 and 1999. The survivors of a planet lived on a narrow inhabitable strip of the planet. On both sides there were less habitable areas. On one side lived mutants who were like vampires and werewolves. In the strip lived the main characters in a town, one a strongman, one a mind reader whose wife was a healer and operated a clinic, one a blind woman who could see the future. There were several towns. The mind reader has a female child whose skin changed colors and also had a son. The leader of the werewolves had a son who killed those living in the town where the main characters lived. When the blind woman got her sight back temporarily, she lost the ability to see the future. The healer’s wife died near the end of the book and the mind reader decided to move to another town where his children had previously moved.
Author Archives: admin
356F: When Written Words Vanish From This World (Short Story)
I am looking for help in trying to locate a short story or essay that describes what happens to books, letters, and other written words once they vanish from this world. I kind of recall that the author might be Jorge Borges, but a superficial search of his work doesn’t show anything. And I might be barking up the wrong tree entirely.
356E: Best Cartoons of the World
356D: Two Young Brothers in Texas Gas Explosion
I believe I read it in 1969. That doesn’t mean that was the year it came out. It was a Reader's Digest Condensed Book. It was about 2 young boys in a large gas explosion in Texas. The older brother chronicles the aftermath with his brother having 3rd degree burns. He makes it so far then asks for a candy bar and it lowers his immune system and he dies. That’s all I can remember.
356C: Five Arabian mares and their boys (Solved!)
This was a slim hardcover in my elementary school library, so it was likely published in the early 60s. It is a retelling of the Arabian breed origin story, Al Khamsa, which has five friends set out to capture and tame five wild mares. They become the five foundation lines of Arabians when they are the only mares to heed the battle trumpets. The story focuses on the boy who tames the chestnut mare, even though he desperately wanted the white mare. The chestnut ends up having a white foal.
356B: Scary Jack Frost and the Girl Kidnapped by Trolls
I read a book as a young girl and the little girl in the book’s parents are divorcing or some similar childhood trauma. She has a red backpack (not illustrated). She notices on the ceiling some snails and somehow (?) is turned upside down and finds herself on the ceiling with some little trolls that ride snails and they’re cold! to touch. She is kidnapped. She also meet some good elves/gnomes? The plot is around Jack Frost coming to freeze the pipes and flood the house but the nasty trolls are cutting the insulation from around the pipes and Jack Frost is a big scary entity. Any idea??
356A: Stubborn Boy Does Not Want to Go to School
Looking for an early 1990s kid’s book about a boy getting ready to start school and not wanting to go. He gets new shoes and says they are too tight. He gets a haircut and says it makes his ears stick out. I’m fairly certain he had orange/red hair.
355Z: 1940s or 50s U.S. Chapter Mystery – Kids, Summer, a ‘Chateau’, a Diamond Necklace?
When I was in about 3rd to 6th grade in the early 1970s, my favorite book in my NJ public school library was a hardcover chapter book about kids on summer vacation, possibly in upstate New York, who get involved in some kind of mystery involving a neighboring house they call the Chateau. I think a diamond necklace came into it, and I’m pretty sure the children of one family joined forces with a boy from another family (maybe living in the Chateau?) to solve the mystery. Either Chateau or Diamond Necklace might have been in the title, but I’ve had no luck Googling for it. It was an old-fashioned story at the time, probably could have been written any time from the late 1930s to the mid 60s. There were illustrations, but a limited number, and I think they might have been listed by caption after the table of contents. I think it was the first time I had heard of a “Porte cochere”, which I had to look up. I think the binding was red, and may have had an imprint illustration of a country house on the cover — but I could be making that up!
I loved it and probably read it four or five times, but these scraps are all I can remember! I’d dearly love to find a copy.
355Y: Lion who loses his key
Looking for a children’s book about a forgetful lion who sets off by boat to visit a friend but forgets his house key. The key can be seen on each page. Great illustrations. Our kids enjoyed it in the early 90s or late 80s.
355X: Woman Goes on Grand Tour of Her Shoe Stores (Solved!)
The book I am looking for followed a young teenager/woman who gets a temporary job driving an older woman on a road trip around Ohio and/or Illinois. The older woman owns some shoe stores and she wants to stop by them before retiring, I believe. I recall the cover being black with rainbow cursive writing.