Category Archives: 1990s-

354P: A Girl Discovering Interesting Things in the Woods

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I don’t know the title, but this is my memory of it. I grew up as a kid in the 1990s, so it would be from around then or earlier. I think it was probably made in the 1980s or 1990s, but I could be wrong. My memory of the artwork is watercolors.
Synopsis: Girl goes out for a walk in the forest. I think she brings sandwiches with her (possibly peanut butter)? She might also have had a thermos to drink something. She goes and picks berries and puts them in a glass jar she has with her. I think she ends up eating all the berries and instead fills the jar with tadpoles. Not sure if I am remembering the tadpole part correctly. It could be that she sees tadpoles in the brook in the forest. My memory is that nothing extraordinary (no adventure) happens. It’s just the girl with her thoughts and discovering interesting things in the woods. My memory of the illustrations is lush and detailed and more sophisticated.
Sorry to be so vague, but this is as good as I got! Thanks so much for your help!

354O: Blue Jay Book With Sound Effect

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The book I’m looking for was a children’s book my grandmother had in her home before it had burned down years ago. The only things I truly remember is that it was about a Blue Jay and I’m pretty sure it had a speaker in it that would chirp at you like a Blue Jay. I may not recall much, but I hope to recognize it if I see it.
It was more than likely a book leftover from one of my cousins born between 1980 and 1996. And I want to say that speaker was yellow for some reason, but that could be wrong.
Thank you so much in advance!!

354H: Design Your Room

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I am trying anyone and anything to find a book (duh) I remember fondly from my childhood (the mid-to-late ’90s). I haven’t had any luck so far, and I have turned to reddit, unfortunately also with no luck.
If I remember correctly:
The book was called Design Your Room.
It was a thin book, with either a silvery cover or perhaps a collage of cool-looling rooms (or possibly even both!).
It was written in English, and I always checked it out from a Bookmobile that would visit my elementary school in the Bay Area (in CA.)
I seem to recall the pages being colorful and fun, and there were different themes for your rooms, depending on what kind of aesthetic you liked (I remember a metallic one, also a more girly one, and maybe a brightly colored one as well).
I have not been able to find anything on google, for all I know this book no longer exists or looks entirely different and unrecognizable now.
Please please please, help me find it.

354D: YA mystery on a farmhouse/orchard? with a secret passage part of the underground railroad

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It may have been published in 1980s/early 1990s, maybe on a Scholastic list, set in the 1800s, a boy visits his ?aunt/uncle one summer, on a farm or apple orchard in New England (maybe Pennsylvania). There is a secret passage used for the underground railroad that is discovered by the boy in the house he is staying at, near the end of the book, when someone is hidden there. Someone may have gotten shot near the end of the book. Boy felt aunt/uncle he was staying with were strict and had a strained relationship with them until their aid to this person near the end of the book changes this. Can't recall the title, but it was long-ish. Cover may have had farmhouse/farm landscape.

354A: Dog who can drive and lives in a mansion

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When I was young (likely about 5-9 in 1987-1991) my mom would often read me a hardcover kids book about a dog who wanted to live like a human. He could drive a car and he lived in a mansion.

The cover was a turquoise-shade and on the cover was the dog and the mansion he lived in. It was the size and shape of a Doctor Seuss book and about a similar number of pages.

Likely relevant: we lived in Nova Scotia, Canada and the book was in English.

353Z: Children’s Book with a red cover about a flying bunny

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It’s a children’s book for about 3rd or 4th graders.  It’s thin, but it is a chapter book.  The paperback version cover has a little girl on it with short hair and it’s red and yellow.  The girl’s name might be in the title and is possibly Sally.  She finds a bunny (pretty sure it’s a bunny) with wings and there may or may not be a circus. The book was older.  She knows it from the early 1990’s, but it had like a 40’s or 50’s art style with simple line drawings with water colors.  I saw some Golden Books that seemed promising, but she said those were all too young.
I’ve tried the below books and none of them were int.
The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes
Lettice
Pookie
Operation Bunny
Felix and the Flying Suitcase
The Little Rabbit who Wanted Red Wings
My Little Rabbit Tale
Reader Rabbit
Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Present

353Y: Dad bakes tire cake that is secretly pretty (Solved!)

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I’m looking for a children’s book that I read in the early 2000’s. The plot is that there’s a baking competition at this boy’s elementary school. All of his friend’s moms sign up to bake, but when he goes to ask his mom she can’t for whatever reason (I think she may have had work? I vaguely remember him lying in bed trying to fall asleep and hearing her type, but that might be wrong). His dad volunteers, and the kid is kind of embarrassed but he agrees. He wakes up the next morning and his dad has the cake under a cake server lid so he can’t see it. At some point he shows him the cake, and it basically looks like a large black tire. The kid is stressed that it’s not as pretty as the other cakes. The parents (all moms except the one dad) line up in a row and the teacher goes around tasting the cakes. When the teacher gets to the dad, he asks her for the knife to cut it. The kid becomes even more embarrassed because he thinks the dad is trying to be chivalrous. The dad takes the knife and instead of cutting the cake, he starts carving it. All of these beautiful rainbow flowers and designs start to appear and everyone is stunned and suitably impressed. I think they end up winning first place and there’s a happy ending.

353K: Satiric/ironic book on how to succeed in college (pub. in 1980s or 90s?)

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I am searching for a trade paperback that was published in the 1980s or ’90s (?), possibly written by university students, on how to succeed in college.
Somewhere in the book there may be a section or a chapter titled something like, “If I go to college, do I have to learn anything?” Also, there may be a line advising people to “Be yourself, but if no one likes who you are, I don’t know what to tell you.”
It’s possible that National Lampoon or another college humor society put the book out.

353J: Historical Stories for Girls

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I loved a book as a child (would have been reading it in the early 1990s), an old fashioned one with a hard cover bound in blue linen and fairly thick. I think there might have been a bird cage with a bird in it on the spine. It also would have had a different slip cover when it was new. I think it was called something like ‘Book for Girls’ or ‘Stories/Tales for Girls’

It was aimed at older girls, and had a variety of short historical stories in it, with female protagonists. It was interspersed with full page black and white ink illustrations, but not many, maybe one or two for each short story.

I think there was an Ursula Le Guin story in it, but I could also be confusing that with other books.

I know for certain that there was a story about a woman whose castle was under siege and the people in it are starving. There was also a historical love story where a man jumped over a women’s wall and starts to court her, even though she is married. She almost runs away with him, but he is actually a criminal so she stays with her husband, who brings her roses he picked himself, even though he was cut by the thorns. There was also a Chinese love story that was a ghost story, where the love between two young people is forbidden by her family. In the end maybe one turns into a swan? Or they both die?

Any help really appreciated, I have been trying to find this book for 7 years!

353G: Non Fiction Alien Abduction

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I read a book around 15 years ago. The author interviewed many instances of abductions. He began to notice that some of the stories of a few of them were exactly the same, and asked for the abductees to meet in person. When they met, they realized that they knew each other. They had been abducted together, multiple times, since childhood. They lived on opposites sides of the country and had never met in person, but knew each other! One of these abductees was a political figure who asked to remain anonymous for fear of ridicule.