Category Archives: 1990s-

361C: African folktales children’s book

I am looking for a book from my childhood and I’m hoping you can help me. It is a children’s book of short stories/folktales/fables, all of which were set in Africa. Each story was different and had different characters. It was written in English, but all of the characters had African names. I think there were around 20 different stories.

It was a large, hardcover book, maybe 15-18 inches tall by 8-10 inches wide. The cover definitely had orange on it. I think it also had brown and dark green. I also am pretty sure that there were vertical stripes on the cover. I think the book had around 80-100 pages, but that number could be way off.

My mom read it to me in the mid to late 1990s, and it was probably purchased from a Scholastic book fair, Barnes and Noble, or Borders.

361B: Trilogy With People That Absorb Magic Power (Solved!)

This is a high fantasy trilogy that I read in the early 90’s where the magic system had a very unique requirement that required a person that was sensitive to magic power, who would dedicate his life not to casting/making magic but only with the ability to absorb the magic power around him like a battery and then was able to give that power to an actual mage that could then use it to make magic.  The mage would be useless without having access to this other person who would feed them magic power.

Also by the third book the magical world gets invaded by a world/reality that has modern technology like tanks and guns.

360Y: “Lead us to you Sarah!” or “Keep knocking Sarah!”

I read the book in the late ’90s? I had to have been in the 5th grade. I read a lot of paranormal books around that time! The book itself might have been a collection of ghost stories.  I don’t think it was “Stories to Tell in the Dark,” but I could be wrong.  All I know is that this particular story stuck with me for over twenty-five years.

A family moves into a house with their daughter. Could be just a single mom. The house was purchased after the woman who lived in it before passed. Soon after they move in the daughter starts having nightmares or is getting sick. She starts to talk about the ghost of a girl.

A medium is eventually called in and he holds a seance. The ghost’s name is Sarah (or Sara) and he asks that she knock to answer questions. Eventually, it is discovered that she is in on the property. With the knocks, she leads them to her resting place. “Keep Knocking Sarah!” or “Lead us to you Sarah!” is shouted by the medium. Her coffin is found behind the wall of the closet or the wall of the girl’s bedroom. Sarah is moved and buried next to her mother.

 

360U: Prehistoric fiction book from 5th grade

My book was read to our 5th grade class on 1989-1990 It is set in prehistoric times in either North America or Europe. The protagonist is a girl. She is somehow separated from her hunter-gatherer tribe and survives on her own, basically developing the historical advances that made it possible for humans to settle in one place, such as planting crops. I think she befriends a boy partway into the story but she’s mostly on her own. At the end her tribe is passing through and they meet. The tribe is starving and she invites them to join her, with the last line in the book somewhere along the lines of “Come in. We have fire, and food in plenty.”
There is no romance, no science fiction, no fantasy element. It seemed to be geared towards children and possibly published for use in a classroom setting to teach prehistory, but it was fictional. A novel or novelette. I have asked my elementary school library, my elementary school principal, my city library, Google, reddit, Facebook, a list of over 300 prehistoric fiction books on Goodreads, Name That Book, and Amazon. I also tried the Scholastic archive, but the one I found doesn’t go back far enough.
I’m really desperate by this point and want to find this book to read to my own kids.

360S: Truly Scary Stories

I’m looking for a book from my childhood that I can’t remember the name of. It would have been 2000’s most likely 2001-2004. It was a compilation of scary stories that were actually scary. It’s a book for older kids. It is NOT scary stories to tell in the dark, or any of the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series.

The cover had a skeleton on it and he was sitting in a rocking chair and it looked like he was maybe in an old attic. I think there were books and candles around him. Maybe a cat or a spider, or both. The cover was a blue - grey color.

Each story had an illustration that went with it in black and white.  I remember there being a story about a dog being under a girls bed licking her hand.

I can’t be certain, but the book may have come from a scholastic book fair.

360N: Older man with suitcase

From what I remember, it is a male author within the last 20 years.  There are two books I remember.

First it starts out with a homeless man under a pier and an older gentlemen talks to him, and tells him to start reading biographies on famous historical people.

Second book (same author) talks about an older gentleman who always carries an old suitcase.  He helps others throughout the book.

I think the author’s name is Andy (but not sure).  He is a best selling author.  The first book is actually about himself and he goes on to be a multi-millionaire businessman.

I’m just looking for the author’s name.  I know he’s done more recent books, but I can’t remember his name.

Thanks for your help in this area.

360G: Rivalry Turns Into Romance

The book I am searching for is a YA contemporary novel wherein the heroine has an ongoing academic rivalship with a male classmate, which eventually turns into something more even though she already has a boyfriend. I think the book was published in the range of 2017-now. The book cover is black, white, pink, and orange with illustrated faces on it, in a style that in my head is reminiscent of the cover of All Your Twisted Secrets by Diana Urban.

359U: Teenage Girl Summer Coming of Age YA Novel with Oral Sex Scene

I have been wracking my brain trying to think of this YA novel I read as a young teenager. I’m now 30 so I probably read the book in 2004/2005, if I had to guess.
The story is about a girl whose parents were divorced and so she goes to live with one for the summer (I believe her father). She’s bored in this sleepy little town and she meets a guy and has a summer of romance and exploration. The most distinctive scene I remember is that this love interest guy gives her oral sex and there is some line in the book about how “his tongue did its little dance.”
I also remember that even though the protagonist was a teenage girl, the author was a man, which shocked me. One of the testimonial quotes on the book sleeve said something like, “So and so masterfully captures the mind of a teenage girl.”
I have tried Googling versions of YA cunnilingus, YA teenage girl receives oral sex, YA teenage girl summer novel written by male author — all to no avail.
I’m hoping you can help me solve this mystery! Many thanks for your help in this.