Author Archives: Julie Beckers

337W: Scared Ghost Loses His Candy

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I had this book back around kindergarten and now I’m a senior. I remember it was a block book, (I could be wrong, however) it was small, and it was a Halloween book. Sadly, the only piece of plot I remember is that the ghost ate candy, and then when it got scared, the candy fell out of him. I hope this helps!!

337T: Girl Starves Herself Trying To Feed Dead Brother

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I randomly remembered a book I read probably a few years ago now. I only remember a few oddly specific things.

For starters, this main girl had a brother and she would bring food out to their yard to him and that is just always where they met up. By a tree, I think. Then later we find out that the brother is actually dead and she has been imagining this all. And the food she was giving him in like these sandwich bags is her food and she wasn’t eating. So she sort of accidentally starved herself. And I think at a point near the end, the parents see all of the sandwich bags full of food out by the tree and sort of realize what has been going on.

That is all I can remember, I hope you can help!!

337R: Children’s European Story Collection

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Hello! I am looking for a storybook collection that I had in the 1980’s.

This book had a number of stories in it that seemed European based. I believe the first story was of a little boy whose mother made him green dungarees with a plane on them that he loved. He accidentally tore them on a fence and was very sad until his mother patched it with a star instead of a plane.
Another story was from Denmark about a boy whose father was a fisherman. The pictures in this one were monochromatic (rust colored.) The picture was of the boy standing close to the sea and possible the famous mermaid statue.
Another story was of a mother hedgehog. I believe it had a picture of a hedgehog in an egg cup.
I believe the back cover of the book was blue.
This book was read to me every night and it was my favorite. I would be so happy to finally find it again!

337Q: Hearts and Flowers

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I am looking for a 1920’s-30s romance, where the heroine earns her living being a professional letter writer, and she begins a correspondence with a young man (invalid/injured?) using the persona of an elderly motherly woman.  The only other detail that I can recall is she sent the young man some women’s hats and requested that he choose the one he liked for her.

337O: Children Stories About Science

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I remember two stories, and I believe they may be from the same book.  One story is of some kids that get “hired” by a local scrap metal company to figure out how to crack open metal cannonballs.  They first try burying it in the snow, but find that the snow acts as an insulator, preventing the cannonball from getting cold enough to crack.  The kids then re-try by leaving the cannonball in the open (at least that’s what I remember), at which point the metal is cold enough to crack.
The other story also involves children, this time on a beach.  They collect up seawater, rig up a distilling system, and then boil the water to make steam.  The steam is collected up as drinkable water.
Thanks in advance!

337N: Earth History As Scenes In A Play (Solved!)

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Children's illustrated science book about earth history, in which each age (formation of the solar system, age of dinosaurs, building Egypt's pyramids, etc.) is presented as a scene on stage in a play, with curtains to the sides. Last scene is at a typical house in the present day. Might have been printed in the 1930s or 1940s, was available in a grade-school library in the late 1970s.

337M: Girl Escapes Dystopian World Through Sewer To Find Mother

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In the mid- 90s we had a college student come to my class for a project on the impact of sci-fi/fantasy novels on kids.  We had a selection of books to choose from, like “Girl with the Silver Eyes” and the Tripod trilogy.  There was one I started, but had to give back the next day as the project ended earlier for some reason.
I think the title had something to do with “moon” or had the word “moon” in it.  It started with a girl escaping a city through the sewer (I think she lived there with extended family?) to go find her mother.  I think it was kind-of in the dystopian genre.  The mom was presumed dead, or shunned from society in some way.

337L: Picture Book Featuring Pink Cat And Blue Dog

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Back in 2001 (I am 23 now, I was about 4-5 years old at the time), I recall picking out this book from my old preschool “library” that I borrowed for a weekend that I can’t remember the title of. However, I remember the character designs spot-on and I remember some vague idea about the subject that the book covered.
I don’t know if it’s much to go off of, but what I do remember is that it was definitely a children’s picture book about rain (or weather in general as the topic, this memory is very fuzzy for me) and the two main characters in this book are an anthropomorphic light pink cat (female) with yellow, almond-shaped eyes that wore either a raincoat or a fishing vest with a wide-brimmed hat of some sort and an anthropomorphic baby blue dog (male) that may or may not have had a raincoat on as well. I also remember that he either had a droopy or gruff-looking face while the cat had a more cheerful disposition. The dog was much taller than the cat in height and I think they were both weather reporters? Or maybe the cat was a weather reporter? Again, I’m not entirely sure.
The book itself was hardcover and looked relatively old and worn out at the time (keeping in mind that again, this is around 2001). So I’m assuming its older than that. The cover had an illustration of the female cat character and the male dog character standing beside each other in their raincoats, under an umbrella, while rain fell from the sky. (Again not entirely sure if this is what it was, my memory is fuzzy.)
This is all the information I have to go off of. I don’t remember the title, the author or the illustrator. Just what I mentioned above.
I tried googling this book for years with no luck whatsoever, but the closest I came was running into the phrase “It’s raining cats and dogs” when browsing children’s books and thinking that the book I’m looking for was either called that, was a twist on this phrase or maybe the characters I talked about were based off that idiom since the plot/subject of that book was about either rain or weather.
I’ve been looking for this book for so long with no success and I’m honestly starting to think that it never even existed. Maybe it’s just a false memory or a fever dream or something? If someone here knows what I’m talking about and could point me in the right direction, I’d really appreciate it! Thanks.