Category Archives: 1980s

156D: Haunted House Pop Up Book (Solved)

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When I was a kid, sometime between 1987-1992, my grandmother bought me a hardcover book that contained 2 or 3 haunted plays that all took place in a mansion (or maybe a hotel?). In the front cover of the book was a pop up of the mansion, that included several rooms, to be used as the set for the plays. If I remember correctly, it also included cardboard cut outs of the characters to move from room to room as you “acted out” the play. My cousin and I played with this book for hours, but for the life of me, I cannot remember the title or the author. It’s not the haunted pop up book by Jan Pienkowski and it’s not the Disney haunted house book. If anybody can help me figure this out, I would GREATLY appreciate it.

 

153E: Looking for 70s environmentalist novel

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I am trying to find a book I started to read in middle school, but it is hard for me to remember all of the details because I didn’t finish reading it. It was a novel, I think from the 70s, with a strong environmentalist message, “save the trees” etc. It was about high school students (?), and had intermittent poems throughout the text, including one that went something like “acid rain, like a single tear drop, rolls down the flower”.
It appeared old and worn to me when I was in middle school in 1998, a small hardcover book with blue binding. I think the latest date of publication would be 1980, as it was about environmentalism and the messages were similar to the messages of the 1970s. Sorry I don’t have more details, but let me know if this jogs anyone’s memory.

Thank you!

 

152E: ISPY type Children’s Book

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There was a book I owned as a child in the the early/mid 90’s.  It was a hidden objects, interactive book, where I believe each page represented a different country.  There was definitely something about hidden treasures.  I believe after you finished the book, there were extra challenges at the end.  One of them was to find a particular man on each page.  I can’t remember if he was a good or bad guy (i.e. a detective or a thief.)  The one thing I remember absolutely is that on each page there was a capital letter hidden somewhere on the page.  After you found all the letters, you had to unscramble them and it would tell you the location of some hidden treasure ( I think it was some type of goblet.)  I remember that Brazil and China were two of the countries- I believe Russia was there too.  I think the answer to the riddle was that the treasure was hidden in Brazil.   It was a large hard-covered book and title completely escapes me. It might have been Treasure Hunt or something like that.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

148D: Mouse family survives flood

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From late 80s/early 90s. It was about a mouse family that lived inside walls of a building and had furnishings made of discarded household objects. Then one day their home is destroyed and is described as a “catastrophe” which I remember because that’s where I learned that word.  I think a flood?

 

145K: Children’s Illustrated Mystery Book from late 1970’s?

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I have been trying for decades to find a book from my childhood. I would have been about 6 or 7 when I got it, so it would seem to be late 1970’s/early 1980’s. It was a hardcover book, about 8.5 x 11 size, with illustrations on each page that had the reader solve a mystery. I cannot remember the title though I seem to think it was a set of two, and perhaps the main character had “professor” in his name somehow. I also seem to recall one or both mysteries being set on a dock and/or boat. The illustrations were brightly colored with dark outlines; a graphic style more so than a detailed realistic illustration. Any help would be appreciated!

 

144C: Children’s book regarding rainy day and umbrellas

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I am looking for a children’s books that was probably published in the 1980s. I am 35 years old now so if this was a new book when I was a child, this would have been maybe around 1988, give or take a few years.
PLOT: What I remember about the book was that it involved a child going to school on a rainy day. When the child arrived at school, they saw all of the umbrellas of the other children lined up outside the classroom. I remember a page (actually I think the illustration covered two pages) depicting all of the different colors and patterns of the umbrellas, all dripping outside the classroom. The style of the illustrations seemed to be like watercolor paintings. I don’t remember anything else about the book, only that the rainy day and the umbrellas were at the center of the story.

 

143N: Magical Midnight Garden Ball

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I’m looking for a hardcover illustrated children’s book that I remember as having some of the most gorgeous illustrations I’ve ever seen. It’s not a novel, it’s more of a picture book. It has very little plot to it, and is more about describing sights and sounds than about a plot. It’s about a princess that goes to a ball (it could be a masquerade, I’m not absolutely sure), at or before midnight and dances with a fairy prince (I think she does, anyway). The ball is held outside on the palace grounds and in a garden maze (as far as I remember). I think the book ends at dawn when all the magical creatures dancing there disappear. It might have been written in poetry form. I think the cover had an illustration of the princess walking down a flight of stairs in a midnight blue dress. I remember the cover itself as being midnight blue, as well as that colour being the main colour of all of the pages. I can’t remember the title. I feel like it had either the word “Midnight” or the word “Mystery” in the title. I remember the clothing pictured as being 18th century-type and there were lots of peacocks and peacock type colours on several of the pages. The book was most probably published somewhere between the late 80s and mid 90s. I’m hoping someone will be able to help me with this. I only wish I could remember more. The illustrations themselves were reminiscent of the work of Graeme Base.