Category Archives: 1990s-

330Z: Toy Horse Comes To Life

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It’s a children’s book, I think middle grade level?  Not sure though, but I don’t remember it having pictures.  A girl wants a horse for her birthday, but her parents get her a model horse instead.  Girl is disappointed (I would be too!).  She climbs a tree with the model and puts it on a branch, but is mad at it and flicks it down to the ground.  It comes to life (full sized) and talks.  She rides it around.  I don’t remember how it ends.  I probably read it in the early 90’s.

330Y: World Girl History Series, Including Dolls (Solved!)

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I’m looking for an early-to-mid-90s “American Girl”-style series of short illustrated chapter books about girls living in different periods of world history, each with their own 18-inch doll.

I am definitively NOT remembering Pleasant Company’s own “Girls of Many Lands” series. Believe me, that comes up every time I try to Google this series and it’s not the one I’m thinking of.

The line may have launched with one book for each doll, then gone out of business before publishing more books; I only remember the first book for each character, most likely obtained through the Scholastic Book Fair.

The characters and books were, as well as I can recall:
– An English girl in the 1100s who was into falconry. Name may have been Elinor/Eleanor. Vivid recollection of the cover: a blond girl in a dull blue dress reaching out to touch a falcon.
– An African (I want to say Igbo?) girl from the 1400s. Vivid recollection of her helping her older sister put on makeup before her wedding, including interior illustration of her applying the makeup. (I remember being surprised that they had makeup way back then. For some reason, that’s what stuck with me.)
– A French girl in the 1700s who wanted to be a ballet dancer. Name may have been Marie, or Marie-Something, or Something-Marie. Cover showed her dancing on a Parisian street.
– An Irish immigrant girl living in San Francisco in the late 1800s. Name may have been Bridget or some other extremely Irish name. Cover may have featured her holding a book to her chest and gazing meaningfully off into the distance. She had curly red hair because of course she did. I believe she also had a Chinese immigrant friend or potential friend who barely showed up and whom I hoped I’d read more about in later books. Vivid recollection of one scene in which she and another girl bond over how much they loved “Little Women” and cried over “the part with Beth.”

There may have been more; those are just the four I remember. On the last page of each book was a perforated card with a photograph of the dolls on it. You could tear out the card and send it away with a check to order a doll. They looked very much like American Girl dolls, so much that even as a child I could tell right away, “Oh, these people are totally ripping off American Girl.” But I could forgive them because hey, history’s a lot bigger than just America! Someone’s gotta fill that niche!

Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you!

330J: Interactive red/yellow circle piece board book

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This is a children’s board book.  I believe the pages are all white with black font writing.  This is an interactive pull tab book where, to start, you drop an actual red and yellow sided counter disc into the book.  Each page changes the color of the disc going from red to yellow.  I am not sure if the red/yellow color is necessary as perhaps other color counters may have been used?  It may have been about shapes.  I suspect it may have been a 1980’s or 1990’s book.  You can pull tabs, slide, flip and open pages to reveal the counter.  It was my son’s favorite book for years.  We cannot find it and he mentioned it to me the other day.  I would like to find it for his 14th birthday if I can.  Thank you.

330H: Creatures In Their Junkyard World

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I remember a book from my childhood with very detailed illustrations. The one that sticks out to me involves a junkyard with sort of a cutaway and you can see all of the creatures in their little junkyard world. In the same book, the protagonist (a young girl I think) visits the junkyard, which has a little house in it and I think she has tea there. That is about all I can remember. I’m now 25, for reference, and I remember reading it in the late 1990s/early 2000s. It’s not Junkyard Wonders or Paper Bag Princess.
Thanks, and can’t wait to re-read this book!

330E: Late-90’s SciFi Book With Female Lead Pilot

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Hi! On the eve of my daughter’s 21st birthday, 11th of January 1998, I had just flown in to London from I think Paris. We were all staying in a London hotel in Piccadilly and as part of the birthday it was theatre and then dinner. I had in my possession a science fiction book I had bought on the way out to Paris at Heathrow airport. I had only read a few pages and i left it behind at the hotel. Although I had only read a few pages I found it a very good start and amusing. The hotel was unable to find  it. I have been looking for ages so all the current well known female leads are not it. I was/am a big SF fan.
I have no idea of the author or title. All I can remember is that a female captain/pilot was being sent again on a mission and she was joking with the guy sending her out.

329R: A Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Space Exploration Picture Book

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I’m trying to track down a book I read a lot as a kid.

It was a large picture book, maybe 8×10 inches. Probably hardcover. Full-page color illustrations. Not very long, if I remember correctly.

It was choose-your-own-adventure style. You were an astronaut/space explorer who landed (or crash-landed?) on an alien planet.

There were mild role-playing game elements to it. For example, you selected a couple pieces of equipment at the beginning of your adventure, and there was a part where you turned to the back and studied a xenobiology index for exactly 2 minutes and then weren’t allowed to reference it again.

You navigated the dangerous alien planet and tried to avoid toxic atmosphere, poisonous plants, and dangerous creatures.

I would have read it (from my school’s library) sometime between ’91 and ’96. I’m guessing it was published in the 80s, but it technically could have been the early 90s or maybe even the 70s? Just feels like an 80s thing.

Would love to track this down. It had a big impact on my imagination and creative inspiration over the years, I’m sure.

Thanks!

329O: Time Traveling Girl Becomes Subject In Colonial Sampler

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My search is for a children’s book, probably in the 1970-1997 time frame.  The book was a time traveling mystery involving a shy, loner-type girl who escapes to sit in a nearby very old tree.  On rare occasions, while in the tree, the girl time travels back to colonial times where she meets two girl friends in the tree.  At this point, the tree is much younger.  The colonial friends remark about the traveler’s shoes and how different they are.  The shoes are modern sneakers.  On a subsequent meet up, the time traveler brings an alphabet book which shows a picture of a giraffe listed for the letter “G.”  The colonials have never seen a giraffe.  At some point, the time traveling stops and the loner girl wonders what became of her colonial friends.  On a library day, the loner looks up colonial samplers.  She finds the sampler her colonial friends made when they couldn’t find her in the tree anymore.  The antique sampler is of the alphabet with a giraffe for the “G” letter and a stitched picture of the modern girl with her sneakers!  The title of this book is not known to me and i remember it had nothing to do with the possible subject matter of the book; therefore, not colonial samplers, mystery, time travel, etc.  The author was a woman, but I don’t know the name.  Please help locate the title and author of this book.  I am sure my two grand daughters would love this book, which  my daughter read years ago in Virginia.  Thank you!

329N: Magical World Past A Hole In The A Hedge

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Seeking children’s picture book, pre-1999 but probably after 1980. Round brothers and sister with straw hats (maybe sailor outfits too) find a hole in a hedge. They get all dirty in a mud puddle and find a magical world with a very geometric castle on the other side of the hedge. One of them might get lost/want to stay. Found in a library in 90s. Driving me insane.