Category Archives: 1980s

331Y: Margot Forces Agoraphobic Mother to Leave Apartment

This is a 1970's or 1960's middle reader. Possibly 1980. A girl named Margot lives in a city with her mother, who has not left their apartment since the father left her. She gets along pretty well by having her groceries delivered and such. Margot gets tired of this and decides to spend the night at a library or something to force her mother to leave the apartment to find her. Not sure if her scheme works or not. A neighbor ends up dealing with the police after Margot is found; I remember her spelling Margot's name for them and telling them "The T is silent" and sounding very proud of this knowledge, like it's a family secret. There is also a boy whom Margot befriends.

331G: Paranormal Handbook For Kids

I am looking for a book that I read when I was about 7. It was probably published in the late 80s to early 90s and was basically a paranormal handbook geared towards kids. I would check it out from the juvenile section of my local library and it featured directions for basic ghost hunting and how to test ESP. It featured Shel Silverstein-like illustrations of kids doing the experiments (you know, that line art style that was so popular in the 80s). It may have had any (or none! how exciting!) of the following words in the title: paranormal, extrasensory perception, ghosts.

331A: Russell Raccoon Discovers Wonderful World Of Daytime (Solved!)

This was a favorite book of my children in the 70’s and 80’s and I made the motherly mistake of giving it away, so would dearly love to find a copy.  I don’t think Russell’s name was in the title.

Russell Raccoon was not like the other raccoons.  He couldn’t sleep in the daytime and fell asleep at night when his gang was out scavenging  One day when he couldn’t sleep he wandered out of his home to discover a whole wonderful world of daylight.   He met a little boy with whom he became friends.  There was a delightful picture of Russell riding on the back of the boy’s tricycle.  When the boss of his raccoon gang, Emma Jean Smudge, found out what he was doing she hit him on the head with her purse and told him to stay away from humans.  Picture of that was very funny.  One day when Russell went to visit his friend, the boy brought him inside his house and showed him the bedroom that had been made for Russell, complete with a little bed with his name on it.  Russell decided to move in with the boy.  The last page of the book shows all of Russell’s group including Emma Jean standing in line outside the house door at night as Russell hands out fig newtons.

330O: Stone Forest

I thought this was in the title, but have had no luck. Set in Western Australia, for some reason a teen ends up surviving on their own (maybe a girl) and before rescued burns wood for a fire which actually turns out to be the petrified remains of shipwrecked sailors from the Batavia or other Dutch (maybe) craft involved in spice trade to Indonesia. I really just remember that the key protagonist thinks she’s hallucinating when spirits appear in the smoke. Can’t remember why he/she is alone, maybe family break down or similar. Presume “stone forest” refers to Bungle-Bungles of the Kimberley region of northern Western Australia. Fairly modern, so maybe published in the 1980’s?

330M: Hibernating Animal behind a Red Door

This book was one my sister and I read in the 1970’s to early 1980’s. I recall that there was a forest creature (cannot remember what kind) who possibly (moved?) to a new house in the forest with a red door. I think his friends were supposed to wake him up for some reason but then they couldn’t find his house with the door, because it was covered with a fallen tree (?) or maybe snow(?). I think they kept finding red things that didn’t turn out to be the door. It would have been a shorter children’s story with a lot of pictures. We read it in English.

330J: Interactive red/yellow circle piece board book

This is a children’s board book.  I believe the pages are all white with black font writing.  This is an interactive pull tab book where, to start, you drop an actual red and yellow sided counter disc into the book.  Each page changes the color of the disc going from red to yellow.  I am not sure if the red/yellow color is necessary as perhaps other color counters may have been used?  It may have been about shapes.  I suspect it may have been a 1980’s or 1990’s book.  You can pull tabs, slide, flip and open pages to reveal the counter.  It was my son’s favorite book for years.  We cannot find it and he mentioned it to me the other day.  I would like to find it for his 14th birthday if I can.  Thank you.

329X: Young adult science fiction book featuring an alien boy hiding on Earth with an caretaker/teacher (Solved!)

I remember reading this book in the late 80's and I think it was the 2nd book in a series. The only details I really remember of it are: 1. The boy had to fake his death in the beginning (involving a bus) and move to another town. 2. He had special powers and could turn invisible 3. He kept having premonitions about upcoming events. 4. One of the premonitions involved lightning during a little league baseball game. I also think the planet he came from was something like Altair or another "A" name.

329R: A Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Space Exploration Picture Book

I’m trying to track down a book I read a lot as a kid.

It was a large picture book, maybe 8×10 inches. Probably hardcover. Full-page color illustrations. Not very long, if I remember correctly.

It was choose-your-own-adventure style. You were an astronaut/space explorer who landed (or crash-landed?) on an alien planet.

There were mild role-playing game elements to it. For example, you selected a couple pieces of equipment at the beginning of your adventure, and there was a part where you turned to the back and studied a xenobiology index for exactly 2 minutes and then weren’t allowed to reference it again.

You navigated the dangerous alien planet and tried to avoid toxic atmosphere, poisonous plants, and dangerous creatures.

I would have read it (from my school’s library) sometime between ’91 and ’96. I’m guessing it was published in the 80s, but it technically could have been the early 90s or maybe even the 70s? Just feels like an 80s thing.

Would love to track this down. It had a big impact on my imagination and creative inspiration over the years, I’m sure.

Thanks!