Category Archives: 1990s-

319Q: The Inept Wizard

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Seeking a fantasy series from the 80s/90s. In the series was an inept wizard who carried a satchel full of rune sticks leftover by a long lost race called the Rebus/Rhebus/Rhybus (I'm not 100% sure of the spelling). The wizard often failed because he had trouble decoding the rune sticks. Eventually his satchel caught fire and he lost them all. The enemies in the books were somehow made of ice and wary of sunlight - I think they were dark elves. When killed, they would degrade into a puddle of dirty water. In one of the books was a character who flew around inside a cavern while wearing an old-fashioned helmet with a hinged visor. He could blast fire from his eyes and regularly chuckled while firing at the trolls below. Any help finding this series would be much appreciated.

319P: Terrifying Baby Thief

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I got a book from a scholastic book fair back in the 1990s. It was about a girl who lived in a house with her baby brother (maybe sister). There was a creature in the woods who stole the baby and she had to rescue him/her. The cover was terrifying (at least to 11 year old me) and I even bought it twice because the cover came off of one.

This creature was maybe a witch or something that needed the youth of the baby to survive – it fed off of the baby or something like that. The book would probably have been written between 1985 and 1995, young adult thriller/horror/fantasy.

Any help is appreciated!!!

319N: Stories Where Teenagers Reflect on Becoming Adults

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I read a collection of short stories in the late 80’s (maybe very early 90’s.)  The stories from the collection that impacted me involved teenage girls coming of age.  One story involved two teenage girls shoplifting at a Woolworth’s (this helps date the collection maybe.)  There was a story of a teenager babysitting some little girls whose mother was in the hospital after a terrible car accident.  The mother passes away during the time the young woman was babysitting.  She must act as an adult to break the news (or not) to the girls.  This story had mermaids within the title.  Another story involved a young woman at a wedding in a faux chalet-like event space.  She goes off by herself (in a bridesmaid dress?) to have a moment alone reflecting on her new near-adulthood when some creep exposes himself to her.  I’m unsure if the collection was classified as YA, but the stories definitely resonated with me as teenager at the time.

319M: Woman Swims With the Rats, Visits California

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I read a book in the late nineties or early two thousands about a woman who makes an unexpected trip to California with her daughter to visit her estranged sister (I think she may have found out her husband was having an affair, but can’t quite remember).

The teenage daughter had suffered from anorexia in the past, the sister was a failed actress. The daughter does a screen test for a movie about Joan of Arc while they’re in Hollywood. The three of them stay in someone’s fancy house in a wooded area (the Redwoods maybe) and the mother has an affair with the caretaker, whose life motto is Carpe Diem and who lives in an old fire tower.

At the beginning of the book the main character describes trapping rats in/near her house and releasing them in the creek behind the house, and then swimming in the creek with the rats. She also describes getting ready for a party (a work function for her husband?) and not having time to wash her hair after the swim in the creek, so she just slicked her hair back, went without makeup (she describes her coppery freckles), bright red lipstick, and a flower behind her ear.

Thank you!!!

319B: The Witch Sisters Scare Their Neighbor

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Looking for a picture book my girlfriend read in the 90s. She says it was about two witches (sisters?), one nice and one "mean."  They had an uptight neighbor who got mad at the nice one about her vegetable garden and so the mean one made the pumpkin big and scared him. She thinks the mean one was named Madam Mehetabel and that this might have been part of the title.

318P: Meeting the Owl and the Pussycat Before Bedtime

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I am looking for a book I had a child. It would be likely from the 80’s or 90’s. It was about a girl [or may be a girl and her cousin] having a bath and they dive down into the depths of the tub until they are swimming in the ocean, and they come out the other side and meet the owl and the pussycat in their Pea green boat. They go on some type of adventure and end up back at home for bedtime. I’ve been racking my brain for a LONG TIME on this one.

318L: British book about two pigs day in town!

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This was a British (I think) book about two pigs whose parents were having a party, so they gave them each like a dollar to go out and have fun while they set up. They went out and went to the candy store and all these other places, and then at the end of the day they didn’t save enough money to ride the bus home, so the candy store owner gives them a ride home. And something about lollipops! And I think it has the word “town” in the title. Like, the pigs go to town, or a day in town, or something something town. It was purchased in the early 1990s in a small bookstore in New Hampshire, where we also got another book called Animal Party, which is also British. Maybe the same publisher?

317D: Little Girl Makes Lost Bear Oatmeal

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I’m trying to find a children’s book that I listened to on tape when I was little. I think this would have been early 90s so the book would have been published between the 80s and 90s.
It’s about a bear who gets lost and a little girl takes care of him. I specifically remember her feeding him warm oatmeal filled with things like nuts, fruit and honey. I think Santa makes an appearance at the end? I’ve found lots of books with various iterations of Little Snow Bear in their titles but none are what I’m looking for. A woman narrates the book on tape. Don’t know her name.

316V: Poppy’s Garden

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I’m pretty sure the title of the book is Poppy’s Garden. It’s about a little black girl named Poppy who is sad that she doesn’t have a real garden, so she plants poppy seeds in all the pavement cracks around her neighbourhood so eventually the whole place is her garden! It’s one of those large square shaped, fairly flat, children’s books. It would have been around in the early 90s but may have already been several years old by this point...

315Q: Siblings with a Magic Scepter

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I read this fantasy book in late 80’s/early 90’s as a child. It featured a brother and sister. At least one had magic (maybe both). I believe brother had a magic scepter. Possibly had a large bird they rode to get to places. The cover may have shown the brother with the scepter riding the bird, but I may just be making that up. Good luck and thank you!