Category Archives: 1980s

321G: POW Rescued By Woman Of The Night

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I’m looking for a book I read many years ago, probably around the mid 1990’s, but I’m sure it was written much earlier than that, likely the early 80’s. From what I remember, it was a story about a POW or prison camp escape and/or rescue of a woman by a man who falls in love with her. I believe she may have been a prostitute and it may have been set during or adjacent to the Vietnam war era.

I remember one character, an older woman (perhaps a brothel Madam?) saying something like “she ain’t nothing but two hips and a hole” or similar when referring to the girls being prostituted.

321D: Mythical Animals From The 80s

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Hi! I am looking for a book that my son adored as a child, but neither of us can remember the title or author. It was an illustrated book about a mythical land with strange creatures: snake-like reptiles that coiled into circles to roll downhill and sometimes blew a flat, zebra/horse creatures that had to walk backwards, because their knees bent the wrong way. That’s all I can remember. I hope someone else knows it! Thank you!

320V: Snail says slug needs to get a house

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Dear Stump-Solvers, I'd love to find a children's book I read to my kids in the late 80s-early 90s. Here's what I remember: A slug is moving along and ridiculed by a snail, because the slug doesn't have a shell. The slug suffers a loss of confidence and sadly slimes along. I remember the slime to cross hot pavement. SPOILER: Eventually the slug meets another slug and is happy. Thank you!

320Q: Fairy Tale Book(s?) From 70’s Or 80’s

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I am trying to identify one or two books from the following two images (I cannot remember if they are clues to two books or if they are both from the same one.)

I remember a rather thick book with a mix of fairy stories, myths & legends from around the world, probably printed in the 1970’s or 1980’s. (I was born in 1981.)

The first image is of my Grandma reading us a book, although it is blurry.

The second image, is a sketch by me of a calligraphy detail in the book, on a title page, I think, which I loved to trace as a child.

I am trying to identify the book(s) represented in each of these photographs, whether they are one in the same or two similar books with collections of stories.  If you could help solve the mystery, I would be much obliged.

Please find the two picture clues below:

320O: Animals’ Body Parts Switcheroo

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Have fun with this one. I'm taking a shot in the dark here that anyone knows what I am talking about, because my mother doesn't. It is a children's book from as late as probably 1982. Guessing possibly around 1975-1980? Literally all I can remember is an image of animals with switched body parts. Not sure how many animals or how many different body parts were switched. Could have been only 2 animals. Different heads for sure. One might have been short with the head of a taller one and vice versa. They might have been barn animals. And something about one of them getting stuck under a fence. Because he was too fat maybe? Like a chain link fence. And that's it. A flash of a memory of one page of a book that, if I can figure it out, is for sure my first identifiable memory.

320G: Sci-fi about a seductive green vine

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This book was probably from the 1970s or 1980s (I read it in the 1990s), and its hardcover was entirely covered in green vines (from what I remember). It was about an (alien?) plant that grew really fast and completely covered a family’s house. The members of the family are totally entranced by the vine, which seems to cast a kind of spell over them (and maybe even speak inside their minds?), until it is almost too late to do anything and they’re entirely trapped.

 

319Q: The Inept Wizard

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Seeking a fantasy series from the 80s/90s. In the series was an inept wizard who carried a satchel full of rune sticks leftover by a long lost race called the Rebus/Rhebus/Rhybus (I'm not 100% sure of the spelling). The wizard often failed because he had trouble decoding the rune sticks. Eventually his satchel caught fire and he lost them all. The enemies in the books were somehow made of ice and wary of sunlight - I think they were dark elves. When killed, they would degrade into a puddle of dirty water. In one of the books was a character who flew around inside a cavern while wearing an old-fashioned helmet with a hinged visor. He could blast fire from his eyes and regularly chuckled while firing at the trolls below. Any help finding this series would be much appreciated.