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!
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:
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.
I’m looking for a short story, that I believe was in a magazine, in the 80s. I read it a ton when I was a kid and that would have been the time period. I remember it involves a hurricane or a terrible storm, a weeping willow tree, and I think there may have been a kidnapping or some type of robbery.
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.
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.
I read a collection of short stories in the late 80’s (maybe very early 90’s.) The stories from the collection that impacted me involved teenage girls coming of age. One story involved two teenage girls shoplifting at a Woolworth’s (this helps date the collection maybe.) There was a story of a teenager babysitting some little girls whose mother was in the hospital after a terrible car accident. The mother passes away during the time the young woman was babysitting. She must act as an adult to break the news (or not) to the girls. This story had mermaids within the title. Another story involved a young woman at a wedding in a faux chalet-like event space. She goes off by herself (in a bridesmaid dress?) to have a moment alone reflecting on her new near-adulthood when some creep exposes himself to her. I’m unsure if the collection was classified as YA, but the stories definitely resonated with me as teenager at the time.
From 70s or 80s. Group of normal seeming people can influence others to violence. Once a year they get together with scrapbooks and show how much war and death they have caused. The worst one “wins.” Protagonist is one of them but tired of hurting and killing. She refuses to use her powers. They gang up on her and the new contest is who can eliminate her. Her trusted butler tries to kill her under their influence. Sorry, I know this one is kind of a downer.
I am looking for a book with two main characters, a brother and sister, and the sister is named Lorna. I forget the brother’s name. I’m pretty sure it was a scary or mystery book about a witch or ghosts. Would have read it in the early 80s which means it could have been published in the 70s. Not much to go on but hoping you can help!
The title, actually the subtitle, was something like "OR, The Things in [girl's name, I think it might have been Susan]'s Piano." It was about a girl who was bad at playing the piano, maybe willfully from refusing to practice, and inside the piano were monsters who were hurt or injured or horrified or angry or something, by her bad playing. They may have been musical notes come to life. It was a picture book in my elementary school library, so it was published before 1982. Probably in the 70s. It was sort of psychedelic and the characters were almost ugly, deliberately so. I remember lots of teeth in big mouths.