Author Archives: admin

340E: Girl moves to beach town (Solved!)

It's a book about a teenage girl who meets an anonymous boy online. They become close and she happens to move to where he lives without telling him. She moves to the beach town with her dad (I think her mom died and was a surfer). She starts working at a museum with a boy she doesn't like but things start to click and she begins to wonder if he's the mystery online boy. She had never told him that she moved to his hometown. She wanted to figure out who he was before revealing herself.

340C: Old Children’s Storybook: Hot Water Williams, Over-Fishing Fishermen, and More

When I was a child we had this big storybook with a red cover that must have been published sometime between 1960-1990. I haven’t been able to find it anywhere on the Internet by searching details that I remember and I can’t remember the title. The first story I remember was about an old grumpy man whose bathtub begins to overflow because the bathtub knob gets stuck and he needs the help of the whole community to turn the knob. Everyone comes together to help him even though he is so grumpy and mean. I believe this story was called Hot Water Williams, but again this search phrase pulls up nothing for me on Google. The other story I remember is about a boat of fishermen who overfish and their boat starts to sink. The illustrations were very 70s-style. There were several stories but these are the only two I remember. If anyone can help me find it I would be so happy because it was one of my favorite books ever. I’ve been trying to find it for years.

340B: Younger Brother Acts Possessed, Acts Like An Alien, Returns To Normal

Looking for a YA horror book (?), possibly British or Australian, 2000s or earlier, about a girl whose younger brother starts acting strangely. It's split into three sections: in the first he is acting similar to a person possessed by a demon (and a priest is called to exorcise him). In the second section he calms down and starts to become obsessed with the stars, implying that he is an alien. In the third section he calms down a little more, and the novel ends with some sort of climax/sacrifice? after which he returns to normal. The cover had a very pale ghostly looking boy on it, and I think the title was a one-word, strange sounding (making starting with a?) name that the boy called himself (I think based off a constellation). I read this book in the early 2010s as a child and was very disturbed but fascinated with it.

339Z: Man v. Nature, Cartoon City, and other Facts

I have a book I cannot remember the title of that I would hope you may be able to find. It is a book maybe for young adult readers, so sort of a children’s book, but maybe not your typical fare.
I was born in 2001, and there was a book I remember from when I was a child that was a bunch of different discrete sections, all vaguely educational. Each page was different and had a different theme, be it statistics about the usage of power (I think that was a page?) or different conflicts in literature (i.e. Man vs. Nature, Man vs. Society). I remember the latter clearly. That page maybe may have also alluded to the fact that Shakespeare stole many of the plots of his plays from stories people already knew? Something like that. I also remember the cover having lenticular printing on it, perhaps depicting a city and also a dinosaur in a cartoonish fashion. It was a relatively large book (thick and large surface area). I may be mixing it up with another book, but I also vaguely remember the book also having a section on the similarities between the Lincoln and Kennedy assassinations? But I’m not sure about that.

339Y: YA Girl falls in love with military guy

Genre Teen/YA? Military Romance
Approximate publication year rough guess late 1987-1988.
Read between 1987-1991
Title Guesses: Beyond the Sunset(no clue really. ?????)
Character names-unknown
Plot description: A girl meets a military guy at/or outside of a USO. The guy either leans on a car or out of a car window and they talk, the guy smokes cigarettes, they end up in a relationship… possibly WW2 era themed.
Cover:  Very plain with no graphics or calligraphy, San Serif style font for title/author, deep purplish sunset.
Setting: Mainland US maybe East Coast
Publisher:  I don’t believe it was Sweet Dreams/Wildfire/Crosswinds/Sunfire.  It might have been Point Romance(Scholastic). The book was in a display with these types of paperback books.  A librarian told me once that sometimes these books were purchased in a display set but I do not believe that this book was part of a series and was a stand-alone book.

339W: Woman Discovers Husband’s Ship’s Mast In The Eye Of A Hurricane

I’m hoping that you can help me find a short story…I’ve been googling keywords but to no avail.
Clues:
This was a short story that I read during middle school. It was in the same textbook or collection of short stories as The Deadliest Game by Richard Connell.
As I recall it, the plot involved an old woman who lived near the beach in New England. There was a hurricane and she went for a walk on the beach during the eye of the storm. During her walk she observed a ship mast (or maybe it was a ship Figurehead) washed up by the storm.
I think her long lost husband or lover, was last seen on that ship and she found some sort of closure by finding this piece of it.
Keywords: Hurricane, eye of the storm, ship, mast, figurehead, New England, beach, old woman
Thanks in advance

339V: Sentient Virus

Archaeologists discover the body of a prehistoric man sealed in a cave. The man’s body contains a virus which is released when the cave is unsealed. When the viral level in an infected human’s blood becomes a certain level, they are able to communicate with the virus. The virus says that it created all our childhood diseases to strengthen our bodies to make us carriers for the virus.

I believe I read it in the 90’s.

339U: Boy Celebrates Birthday With Circus Performer Parents

"Put away that donkey's tail. . . " 1950s? book about a boy whose parents are circus performers. He likes to wear a false donkey's tail. He tied a balloon to it and it popped. Then all the circus performers gathered 'round while his Mum served him his birthday cake. Red outline illustrations. Please find this for me!! Thank you!!