Category Archives: 1980s

350S: Out of Print Witchcraft Book

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The details of what I’m looking for are as follows:
– I’m looking for a book on witchcraft that is almost certainly now out of print, having been published between the 1960s and the 1980s.
– The cover is solid pale pink with some black illustrations. I believe that there is a clothed pre-Raphaelite woman on the cover, and an image of her nude appears a few pages in.
– The title did *not* explicitly mention witchcraft, Wicca, magic, or spells. It may have used the word “potions” but I believe the title only referenced the making of natural cosmetics and/or other natural goods.
– I borrowed this book from the Hillsborough County (FL) library system in the late 90s or very early 2000s, but after searching their catalog I do not believe it to still be in circulation.
– I specifically remember one spell from the book, that prescribed eating an apple with your back to a mirror to discern your future lover. Unfortunately this is a commonly published spell so it may not narrow it down.
I think that is all I have to go off of, but would be more than happy to answer any further questions.

350Q: Book with Tape Picture Book of Planetary Explorers

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From early-mid 1980’s(?), book + tape children’s read along picture book. Brother and sister(?) visit all the planets in the solar system along with a ‘captain’ astronaut guy. There’s a part about each planet. There is music and sound effects in the production. In one part the captain almost dies on a space walk and the kids save him. I’ve been looking for this for decades now.

350N: Illustrated children’s book featuring a young boy, alligator/crocodile, and (possibly a second book) other wild animals

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It’s possible I’m confounding two children’s books. I remember reading this/these book(s) as a child in the 1980s. Book(s) featured a young boy who has trouble falling asleep. He wakes up or is still awake late at night, fearful of wild animals coming into his house. He is not believed by his parents. After dark he encounters wild animals, including a lion or tiger coming down the stairs of his home. He is afraid but is not harmed. I also remember (possibly from the same book or perhaps from another book) that the boy is at school, daydreaming. He looks out the classroom window and is scolded by the teacher. He sees an alligator/crocodile, who is beckoning him to go on an adventure to return the alligator/crocodile to his home. The boy travels with the alligator/crocodile through water. The alligator/crocodile says goodbye, offering the boy his tooth as a parting gift. The alligator/crocodile has a single tear on his cheek as he says goodbye. The book(s) have a dreamy, whimsical feel and I remember being frightened of the wild animals and enjoying the illustrations.

350J: Witch keeps girl’s lover in birdcage

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I’m looking for a darkly illustrated children’s book, probably published in the late 80’s/early 90’s.

There was very little text and mostly illustrations. The story involved a girl whose lover(?) is taken away by a witch. She goes to the witch’s lair and there are many birdcages with owls in them. Her lover(?) is also being kept in a birdcage when she saves him.

The pictures had a very dark colour scheme with a gothic/art nouveau art style, similar to Kay Nielsen but darker. I remember being fascinated with this book as a child as the content was so dark compared to my other books. I’ve been trying to locate it for years but cannot remember even slightly what the title was.

If it helps, I suspect the author was European given the content, so the original book was probably published in Finnish, Danish or German.

350F: Cat is cared for by everyone in an apartment building

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Bright, colorful illustrations. A stray cat is cared for differently by each person in an apartment building (plays with someone’s yarn, someone else feeds fish). In the end, she has kittens and each person takes one to live with them. One of the illustrations is of the apartment windows/balcony with each of the kittens with their family. Maybe published late 80s/early90s? Not Six Dinner Sid or The Cat with Seven Names.

350E: Supposedly Heroic Girl Dies in Apartment House Fire (Solved!)

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Looking for a 1970s ya fiction book about a girl who died in an apartment house fire. Everyone thought that she was a hero because she alerted the other tenants to the fire so they could get out. Actually, it was her brother who had done the alerting while she went back to her apartment to get her shoe box of paper doll families. This was a much darker sequel to a book about a brother, a sister and another girl. Think the title may have been something like “The truth about (girl’s name)”, but not positive. Don’t remember author but know I read it right after it came out somewhere between 1969 and 1980.

349S: Picture Book about Spoiled Rotten Princess Who Lives With the Gypsies (Solved!)

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Here are all the details I can remember:
 
It was a picture book, but one with medium to a lot of words. I read it between 1990-1992, and I think it might have been a new copy, but I have no idea when the copyright was. I remember really loving the pictures!
 
It was a story about a little princess who is so loved by her father, but she is spoiled rotten and for her birthday he hires some gypsies to perform for her. She throws a fit over something and then, after she’s supposed to be in bed, she overhears him say that he wishes she would be a sweet girl (possibly like one of the gypsy girls?) or she will not be fit to run the kingdom.  
 
She either runs away or is taken by the gypsies, and they live a life of hard work and expect her to do it too. After only a little while, she fits right in and her skin turns brown from being out in the sun, and she almost forgets about her former life. 
 
The gypsies perform for lots of people, and they teach her to perform too. One day they go to a castle that seems familiar, but it isn’t until she sees her father that she remembers her previous home. She runs to his arms and he commends her for learning to be good. 
 
Anyway, that’s about all I can remember. I hope you can help!

349P: Forest Girl Falls in Love with City Boy

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I read this as a young adult (I was born in 1976). It was a beautiful novel about a girl who grew up in the forest with little / no interaction with the outside world. I remember she had a vivid imagination and maybe had a magical lake or bog she would visit. She meets someone from the “city” and they fall in love. I seem to remember he gave her gloves and she didn’t know what gloves were. I now have teenage daughters and would love to share this novel with them.
I’ve done a lot of searching with the words girl, lost, forest, tree but can’t seem to figure it out.

349C: Beaver Patrol?

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Looking for children’s book that my wife had as a child. She was adopted, but remembers this book from her birth mom. She is wanting those memories back. Can you help?

This is a children’s book with illustrations, circa 1970-1980. A family of beavers who wore red jumpers, I think. One of their activities in the book was making pancakes and flipping them with their beaver tails.