Category Archives: 1990s-

340J: Young Man from South Africa Travels to Botswana to Escape Apartheid

A few years ago I read a book about a young man from South Africa during apartheid who would risk his life to travel back and forth over the northern border to Botswana.

He travels to Botswana and becomes a gardener for a woman who lives alone.  He is black and she is white.

I read the book within the last 10 years and it has stayed with me.  I don’t remember the name or the author, but I think this would be a good book for my book group to read.

340I: Girl Wakes Up Inside Dollhouse (Solved!)

I read this book in 1995 from a middle school book fair. It was a children’s/young adult book. The cover had an evil doll with brown hair and looked like the doll was bursting through the cover. I remember the main character was a girl probably 10-12 years old. There was something about a dollhouse and waking up inside the dollhouse. Maybe she and her family had just moved to a new house? There was a part where the main character begins to realize she is inside the dollhouse because she finds a wide tooth comb and describes it as very large like someone would use if they had dreadlocks. Why I specifically remember that, no idea. I managed to lose the book over the years but it was a nostalgic favorite of mine. Hopefully you can help.

340E: Girl moves to beach town (Solved!)

It's a book about a teenage girl who meets an anonymous boy online. They become close and she happens to move to where he lives without telling him. She moves to the beach town with her dad (I think her mom died and was a surfer). She starts working at a museum with a boy she doesn't like but things start to click and she begins to wonder if he's the mystery online boy. She had never told him that she moved to his hometown. She wanted to figure out who he was before revealing herself.

340B: Younger Brother Acts Possessed, Acts Like An Alien, Returns To Normal

Looking for a YA horror book (?), possibly British or Australian, 2000s or earlier, about a girl whose younger brother starts acting strangely. It's split into three sections: in the first he is acting similar to a person possessed by a demon (and a priest is called to exorcise him). In the second section he calms down and starts to become obsessed with the stars, implying that he is an alien. In the third section he calms down a little more, and the novel ends with some sort of climax/sacrifice? after which he returns to normal. The cover had a very pale ghostly looking boy on it, and I think the title was a one-word, strange sounding (making starting with a?) name that the boy called himself (I think based off a constellation). I read this book in the early 2010s as a child and was very disturbed but fascinated with it.

339Z: Man v. Nature, Cartoon City, and other Facts

I have a book I cannot remember the title of that I would hope you may be able to find. It is a book maybe for young adult readers, so sort of a children’s book, but maybe not your typical fare.
I was born in 2001, and there was a book I remember from when I was a child that was a bunch of different discrete sections, all vaguely educational. Each page was different and had a different theme, be it statistics about the usage of power (I think that was a page?) or different conflicts in literature (i.e. Man vs. Nature, Man vs. Society). I remember the latter clearly. That page maybe may have also alluded to the fact that Shakespeare stole many of the plots of his plays from stories people already knew? Something like that. I also remember the cover having lenticular printing on it, perhaps depicting a city and also a dinosaur in a cartoonish fashion. It was a relatively large book (thick and large surface area). I may be mixing it up with another book, but I also vaguely remember the book also having a section on the similarities between the Lincoln and Kennedy assassinations? But I’m not sure about that.

339V: Sentient Virus

Archaeologists discover the body of a prehistoric man sealed in a cave. The man’s body contains a virus which is released when the cave is unsealed. When the viral level in an infected human’s blood becomes a certain level, they are able to communicate with the virus. The virus says that it created all our childhood diseases to strengthen our bodies to make us carriers for the virus.

I believe I read it in the 90’s.

339R: Star Kids

I’m looking for a book I read in my childhood surrounding a group of girls who each had individual powers/gifts relating to zodiac constellations. They may have been labelled as guardians.

I can remember a part of the book relating to one of the girls who had magic in correlation to the Leo constellation.

I can’t remember the title or cover of the book, I’m just hoping you can find it. I’m 22 and read it when I was roughly 7 or 8, so possibly 2006/7.

Thanks in advance.

339C: Lost Maiden Wanders Castle

Looking for a peek through picture book. I owned this book as a small child in the 80’s or early 90’s at latest. My family lived in both Europe (Italy) and US, and the book had English text. The book wasn’t aged, so the printing must have been recent to the 80s.

Story: minimal text and background. A beautiful young girl is lost or just wandering in the woods. In the forest she comes upon a seemingly abandoned castle or ruin. She wanders through halls and grounds covered in vines with broken branches. She meets no one but passes a suit of armor, an owl, possibly a fancy clock (may be confusing clock with The Last Unicorn). There might be a wizard or something in the background, but not sure. The page cutouts are windows or broken walls showing part of the next page. The book has a somber, ominous tone but she finally finds a way out.

Character: Not sure if she has a name, maybe Elsa, Ilsa, Ella Beautiful maiden with dark flowing hair. Wearing a simple dress, maybe white dress. See examples: storyberries. com/fairy-tales-little-snow-white-by-brothers-grimm/ pookpress. co. uk/shop/beauty-and-the-beast-john-hassall/

Book: a gorgeous picture book with intricate cut outs or peek throughs. The top of the pages form a layered forest of trees, ruined walls and arches. Think something like A Walk Through The Woods by Louise Greig barnesandnoble. com/w/a-walk-through-the-woods-louise-greig/1127544173 Thicker pages to support the cut outs. I’d think the book was intended for 4-9 years old

Illustration style: Vintage fairy tale. Limited color palette: black hair, white dress, cream/tans/brown/gray walls, green vines and leaves I’d love to figure out this book. I had a number of well done peek through books and panorama books as a child. It doesn’t seem like there are as many of these books available today.

339B: Children’s picture book about girl who turns into a tree at the end

I was obsessed with this book from approx 1998-2004. I lost the outer cover of it so all I remember was a large bright green hardcover with a tree embossed on it.

It starts off with a little girl who plants a tree. The tree grows quickly and the girl shrinks and meets all the animals of the tree, like squirrels. She experiences all 4 seasons in the tree and at one point I think she hibernates with a bear inside the tree during winter. The best part is at the end she turns into the tree! There is an image of her body and face drawn into the trunk of the tree as part of the bark. Then her mom calls her name (might have been Emily?? Might not) and she wakes up next to the small tree she was planting. It was all a dream!

I’ve been looking for this book for many years with no luck, thank you in advance for any help!