Author Archives: admin

342S: Second Grade Book

I am trying to find a book that my teacher read to me in the second grade. I can remember the cover – lavender with a photo in the center and two snakes on either side. Snakes were a sort of trope in the book. It was either a coming of age or autobiography of a girl who lived in the SouthWestern US. Unfortunately, that is all I remember.

342R: Sordid Affair Leads to Heiress Being Raised by Native American Woman


Romantic novel, heiress is raised by a Native American woman after her father runs away with her (he finds out his wife betrayed him, his second daughter isn't his, she has been having an affair, and ended up dying by her lovers hand) and dies in the wilderness. She hums a "spirit song", Greensleeves. A soldier comes to the Native American camp, she ends up falling for him, and he brings her back to civilization, to his fiance's family who happens to be her long lost sister and grandmother. Her sister doesn't like her and thinks she's a fraud, when she is actually the true heiress to everything. Her sister is also having an affair (just like her mother), she ends up dying just like her mother did.

342Q: Vintage Picture Book Featuring the Ocean

Vintage Picture Book (from 50s, 60’s, or 70s), not very thick, stapled, maybe 10 – 12 pages, not a lot of printed text. Watercolor, realistic illustrations

What I remember about the story: A boy spends a lot of time snorkeling, he sees all kinds of fish and turtles, and he finds a shipwreck and a shark shows up (scary) but he escapes and finds a treasure.

I remember the following illustrations:

  1. Sea stars on a sandy ocean floor, the sunlight is shining through the water onto the ocean floor
  2. A sea turtle swims and again the sunlight coming through the water
  3. A two page illustration showing the boy on the left top looking down on the shipwreck, again the light plays through the water

The illustrations were realistic and what stood out was the light portrayed underwater.

 

342N: The Magic Pencil (Solved!)


I'm looking for a chapter book that I read when I was ~9 in the early 80s. It's about two kids (boy and girl) who find a magic pencil that changes things to whatever they write. I think they get it from a handyman that uses it to change the length of his ladder, the type of cookies in a box etc. They change their size to 4" and have adventures. I remember a chase with a cat and them visiting a cave of some sort.

342M: Children’s Book – Whale who changes color (Solved!)

I’m racking my brain to remember a favorite childhood book. The premise of the story is a whale who is traveling down a river in the jungle (I think it’s a jungle?) who meets other animals along the way and he is sad that he is not colorful like they are. The other animals help him become colorful by rubbing different colored plants on him. I vaguely recall the cover of the book, but I do remember that it was rectangular in shape. I was born in 1979 and I don’t think this book was published much before or after that. Maybe 1987 at the latest? Does anyone recall coming across this book?

 

342K: White Horse Turns Pink After Eating Strawberries (Solved!)

As a child in the 1940’s I had a picture book about a white horse who loved strawberries but was allergic to them and turned pink when he ate them.  I do not remember the title or the author, but I do recollect a blue cover with a picture of a white (maybe pink horse).  I’d love to see that book again, or at least learn something about it.