Category Archives: 1980s

379Q: Obscure 1970s-80s YA: Boy’s strange adventures, betrothed/young married kids (maybe cousins/gypsies), family secrets, reunion at Kentucky Derby with girl in polka dot dress & ‘My Old Kentucky Home’ playing

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This has bugged me for years—posted about it on Library Thing back in 2018 (link: https://www.librarything.com/topic/292966#6515048) with no solves, but adding more details now in case it clicks for someone.

I read this book in England in the late 1970s/early 1980s (probably on a shared bookshelf at my dad’s work—likely a US import or British edition). It was a quirky/strange YA (young adult) book, from a boy’s perspective, more mystery/adventure with family secrets than straight romance (though maybe light romantic elements or betrothal tension).

Key bits I remember:

  • Two children (boy protagonist + girl) who were either betrothed young, arranged to marry early, or possibly cousins (that part’s fuzzy/weak).
  • Strange adventures happen to them.
  • Possible gypsy/Romani/traveler family background (one or both sides—maybe adding outsider secrets, wandering, or cultural quirks).
  • The story builds to a climax/reunion near the end: They find each other again at the Kentucky Derby (or a Derby-related event). He spots her in the crowd (possibly amid race horns or excitement), she’s wearing a polka dot dress, and “My Old Kentucky Home” is playing (or tied to the scene somehow).
  • Not primarily a romance; more YA adventure/mystery with a poignant, symbolic ending.

No idea on title/author/cover—it’s obscure, maybe small-press or regional. Anything ring a bell? Even partial matches or similar books would help!

Thanks in advance—it’s one of those that pops into my head every few years.

379O: Man goes Walkabout

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My mother is trying to remember a book she read years ago.  Here is everything I know about it:

  • She read it in the early 90’s, had checked it out from the library
  • The premise is a man just up and leaves his job one day and ends up in Australia.  He has one close friend who knows where he is and what he’s doing. This friend is how the man accesses his finances (he seems to have been either well off, or his finances were well organized).  
  • The book is of average length – not super long, not super short.  
  • My mom thinks is had a brown or maroon cover. 

This is from my mom: “I think he spent some time with the indigenous.  He was a white male who got on a plane and flew to Australia.  He had one male confidant who knew his whereabouts and could access his bank account to send him money.   Maybe married but not sure.”

379K: Lost in the Word Factory

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What I recall: 

-Children’s picture book, read in the 90s, but could be from 60s/70s/80s

– Illustratons were very simple, like James Stevenson or Jules Pfieffer

– Plot about a boy who visits some sort of factory or construction site where words are made- very similar to Charlie and the chocolate factory, but with concepts around stuff like words (and maybe some numbers/math too?)

– I recall a section where a kid gets stuck to a balloon (maybe a speech bubble) and floats away, and has to be rescued by an older gentleman who throws some sort of dart to deflate it. The man runs? The factory and gives the boy a tour.

379J: Pre 1990s Children or YA fantasy, plot similar to Wizard of Earthsea

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I read it in 1989, so published in the 80s or earlier, in a UK primary school library (aged 11). Similar to A Wizard of Earthsea, but a bit shorter and easier to read maybe. Plot detail I remember: -boy working in a castle or manor house, has some restriction on his senses due to a stone or charm (it makes him deaf or dumb maybe?). He can do magic natively, and lights a fire using magic, maybe by running his fingers along it. He wears a charm of some sort, which an older magician spots and removes, ‘freeing’ him, after spotting him doing magic -he becomes an apprentice to the magician, and can do powerful magic that other magicians can’t. Some kind of war or battle to win. -he meets a girl along the way -it ends with him defeating the enemy — and I think taking his boots off and putting back on fur slippers, and being with the girl.

378U: Boy finds buried treasure after encountering barracudas, porpoises & dolphins

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This was a beautiful book I read a lot as a kid, so it definitely existed in 1984. The pictures were very colorful, perhaps made with colored pens or pencils & watercolors. 

The story is about a boy with blonde hair who lives near a beach and he goes out snorkeling or swimming. It looks like Florida or the Caribbean. There are many gorgeous pictures of underwater scenes. He finds a pink conch shell containing a pearl that is part of the treasure search I think…..

At one point he encounters a school of barracuda fish and it’s full of tension. I believe he is threatened by a porpoise at one point, and a dolphin comes to his defense… or maybe the porpoise saved him from the barracuda? The fish don’t talk or anything, the only thing “fantasy” in nature is that the dolphin came to save him.

It’s hard to remember! But the final scene is he finds the treasure in what looks like a little tide pool in the sand and the gold & jewels are sparkling in the sun. Please help me find this so I can share it with my child! Thank you.

At one point in the story, They see a shipwreck and find a pearl (perhaps from the conch shell). Something scares them, maybe the shark – and they drop the pearl. But a little seahorse catches it in the curl of its tail. 

378R: Surreal Nautical Quest for Strange Creature (Solved!)

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I’m looking for the title of a picture book that I read as a child in the mid-1990s. I believe the book was written in the 1980s or 90s, though it could also be from the 70s. I don’t remember any part of the title. It was a large-format hardcover edition.

It features illustrations with a watercolor style and a brightly colored, somewhat flat, surreal aesthetic with greatly exaggerated proportions. Its protagonist is an explorer who is dressed in a blue 19th-century naval outfit and sailing a large (and very tall) ship by himself.

He is searching for a rare creature that has some giraffe-like features and eats bananas, and on every page you can see that this creature is following him just out of sight. During his exploration, the protagonist meets several huge, frightening monsters, one of which I seem to recall was named the “purple lumpy thumpet”.

When the explorer finally finds his creature, it is revealed that it has many babies, and also that the monsters he encountered earlier were all friendly. All characters then have a picnic together on an island.

As a young child I read this book over and over again, captivated by its unique blend of unsettling, dreamlike  visuals and mischievous, lighthearted storytelling. I have now been searching for its title for nearly a decade with no luck, and just found out about this service.

378D: Mid-century Modern Insect Homes (Solved!)

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Alan Strickland, a_strickland@carolina.rr.com[/private role]

I’m trying to identify a book that my two children (one born in 1981, the other in 1983) remember from their childhoods. I’d like to make it part of my grandson’s library.

Below is my daughter’s description of the book. Thanks for the help!!…

70’s/80’s vibe.  That memory might be because the main image I remember was a neat mid century modern home “split” so you could see the inside. That was the whole concept of the book.  A look into the homes.   The owner of this particular home was maybe a grasshopper?  Or a caterpillar?  The home was outfitted with modern furnishings, as if it were human.  I think each image was the same in the fact that all of the interiors with their creatures featured modern living quarters versus realistic “homes.”  This home was located on a cliff, lots of clean lines and overhangs.  A cool place.

All of the images of the book were drawn with great attention to detail.  A book someone of any age would enjoy to look at verses just a young kid.

We’re they all insects?  Maybe.  It wasn’t a story.  It was more like each page was its own display.  I’m sure there were some words or descriptions, but I don’t remember.

378C: The Friendly Monsters (Found!)

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I’m looking for the title of a picture book that I read as a child in the mid-1990s. I believe the book was written in the 1980s or 90s, though it could also be from the 70s. I don’t remember any part of the title. It was a large-format hardcover edition.

It features illustrations with a watercolor style and a brightly colored, somewhat flat, surreal aesthetic with greatly exaggerated proportions. Its protagonist is an explorer who is dressed in a blue 19th-century naval outfit and sailing a large (and very tall) ship by himself.

He is searching for a rare creature that has some giraffe-like features and eats bananas, and on every page you can see that this creature is following him just out of sight. During his exploration, the protagonist meets several huge, frightening monsters, one of which I seem to recall was named the “purple lumpy thumpet”.

When the explorer finally finds his creature, it is revealed that it has many babies, and also that the monsters he encountered earlier were all friendly. All characters then have a picnic together on an island.

As a young child I read this book over and over again, captivated by its unique blend of unsettling, dreamlike visuals and mischievous, lighthearted storytelling. I have now been searching for its title for nearly a decade with no luck, and just found out about this service.

377S: Animal beggars who were at the bottom of a well

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There’s a book that I had as a child that my mother hated reading to me – I was born in 1987, we had this book before I turned 10. It was a children’s book, illustrated, it was about animal beggars with different kinds of injuries (one missing legs, one blind – war wounds I think), I think one of the animals was a frog. They lived (or hid?) in the bottom of the well and meat was thrown down to them. I’m sorry that I don’t remember much more of about this book.