Category Archives: 1980s

229C: Kid rides across uncrossable desert on back of huge crab. 80s YA fantasy.

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Hi!
I hope you guys can help find this book. I read it in the mid-late 80s, somewhere between about 4th and 8th grade. I don’t recall any illustrations. It was set in a mythological land and was about a kid who rode across the desert on the back of a large crab. I think there was a procession of crabs, migrating maybe. I think the kid’s people had never been across the desert and didn’t know what existed on the other side. And maybe he had to eat the crab (or one of them) to survive. He makes it across and there’s another civilization across the desert, I think.

Thanks!

228F: Town’s largest yarn ball

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This book is an older children’s/YA book, set in small-town America. It was published in the 80s or earlier. The major competition in the town is which of two women had the larger ball of yarn/string. Everyone adds their spare bits to one or the other – I believe the POV character (a girl) brought the string from around a package to add to one woman’s ball.

Eventually, the town decided they needed to know once and for all. One woman’s was measurably a little bit larger, but there was the question of how tightly it was wound, plus there was the rumor that there was a peach pit in the center.

In the end, they decided to answer the question by unwinding each ball around a racetrack or something. I think they may have had to knock out walls to get the balls out of their owners’ houses. Partway through the unwinding one of the balls did indeed start looking notably peach-pit-shaped, and that’s the last I remember.

Thanks for any help!

228E: Orphan? girl who cares for animals in winter

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A young girl seems to live by herself without parents in a small house/cabin. It is winter and her cabin is snowed in so she digs herself out in order to do her chores, which consist of taking care of a variety of animals. At the end of the day I think she makes herself a cup of cocoa and goes to sleep surrounded by her animal friends.
I read this children’s book when I was young in the 90’s although it may have come from the 80’s as I have two older siblings. The illustrations are in color and I might remember the girl wearing a red scarf or hat.

Thank you!

228B: Child (maybe a “monster”) goes home for Xmas and discovers a secret passage in back of closet

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I am looking for a book for a friend. She describes it as a young boy (possibly a “monster”) goes home for from boarding school for Christmas on a train and discovers the house a secret passage in the back of a closet. There is a map in the back of the book with the secret passageways. She think it came out in the early 90s and was a scholastic title. The family was wealthy. The book was intended for children 9-12. Help!?

227H: Plants go crazy!

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A little boy offers to help his neighbor take care of their houseplants while they’re away, and as each day passes the plants grow and grow, until they’ve filled up the house and are spilling out the windows and doors.  I would have seen it as a child in school or at the library in the early 80s, but the book may be from earlier.  I believe hardcover, with color illustrations ( I want to say ink and/or colored pencil?)  I’ve always been fascinated by plants and this book was my favorite!

227D: Girl embarrassed by weird family (Solved)

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A book from the 1970s, I think. I read it in the late 80s or early 90s. It centers on a teenage girl whose name *might* have been Margaret or Marguerite – not quite sure though. Her parents were super weird, and I think her family was kind of weird too. Her dad I think was kind of bald on top but grew out his hair on the back and sides. I think there may have been very brief black and white sketches too. Weird things I can remember that they did: sing opera in the back yard, have mattresses for furniture instead of real furniture, they also did a backwards progressive dinner one night (where they ate desert first and worked backwards to the appetizers) and brought home some kind of shrimp appetizers for the kids to eat, which was great for the kids because they had accidentally burned the pizza they ordered in the oven because the left it in the cardboard box and almost started a fire. I think she eventually learned to accept the quirkiness. Also, I think her siblings were kind of weird too and that she considered herself the only “normal” one. I don’t think it’s “Mom, You’re Fired,” nor do I think it’s “Me and Fat Glenda.” Neither of those descriptions seem to match. Thanks!

226H: Short story collection

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It was definitely published before 1994, possibly published in the 70s/80s.
It was a collection of short stories printed in paperback, my copy was missing the from and back and the first page that normally lists the title and publishing info.
Each story was like 5-10 pages with some detailed black and white drawings on occasional pages.
There were 5 or 6 short stories in it but it’s possible there were some from the front or back missing since I received the book used.
There’s two stories I remember.
One was about a girl who became obsessed with bubble gum trying to blow the biggest bubble ever and she blew one as big as herself and it popped and she got covered in gum.
The other one was about a boy who wished he was invisible so he could sneak out of the house and join the circus.