It is a “scary” children’s picture book about a woman dressed in all black and she kidnaps children. She has a black hat with a black veil, yet has yellow eyes that can still be seen. She carries an umbrella and a bag of bricks. She has pilgrim buckle type shoes. She can run really fast and creates a black streak as she passes. As she kidnaps more kids, the parents of the remaining children send them to school with protection. The zookeeper’s son arrives with a boa constrictor around his neck, the beekeeper’s son wears a beehive, the military kid rides up in a tank, etc. The lady in black even takes a teacher. They eventually catch her and she leads the police to a cave where the children and teacher are kept, unharmed. The lady then slips out of the handcuffs and escapes. The book was written in English and had colored illustrations. I read it in Minnesota, USA in the mid-to-late 90s. I remember a specific illustration in which the lady is hiding behind a pole at a bus stop, just before she takes a kid.
Category Archives: 1990s-
287D: Dark YA book about a girl who befriends fairies
I read this book in the early 1990s, but have no idea when it was published. The details I remember are that there is a girl who is for some reason befriended by fairies. She shrinks down and goes to visit them. Maybe she’s going to become their queen or something? For some reason she ends up with this necklace made of thorns that she can’t take off. The only other thing I remember is that the fairies would feed her nectar from a flower.
286G: One day the animals started floating (Solved)
I am hoping you can help me find a children’s book we used to get from the library in the late 1990’s and maybe early into the 2000’s.
It took place on a farm in the grain belt and one day the animals started floating up, then the tractor, then the whole farm separated from the ground and they were hovering in one spot, but not attached to the ground. In the end grandma got out her needle and thread and sewed the land back down and they ate a dinner of white food (white rice, white potatoes, white bread and milk).
Sorry this isn’t much to go on. I was hoping to get it for my daughter’s birthday as a surprise, but if you need more info I can ask her for more details.
285C: Kafka-esque book for kids, 90s
A young boy becomes a roach- literally all I remember. However, the side story I do remember. His sister is some kind of super genius who didn’t speak until she was five and when she did finally speak she created a board game. She spends her day in front of the tv counting the number of times the commercial for the board game plays and how much money she is making.
285B: 90s children book, cooking with bugs (Solved)
Read this in January 1995. It is a Judy Blume or Louis Sachar-esque children’s chapter book. Some kids are doing some kind of report and/or competition to create outlandish dishes by new and inventive means.
The protagonist, a boy, decides to experiment by putting insects in the food. In one scene, he brings brownies to school that he’s put roaches in. (Particularly memorable because it just so happened I brought brownies to class for my birthday that day when we got to that chapter and everyone got a big laugh about the coincidence). He finds out that his chief rival is using the car to cook food; they come out of church or a PTA meeting to the smell of hamburgers because he put the patties on the hot engine. Thanks!
282A: A dollhouse with a little witch living inside
This is a book that was in the library when I was in grade school so early 90’s. It was already vintage then, probably 70’s-80’s, but I actually have no idea as to the publishing date. It is about a young girl who acquires/has a dollhouse with a little witch living inside who is alive and rides around on her broom. If I remember correctly the house is in the room where she is staying with an old relative. I think someone’s name started with an S, possibly Samantha, but I could be mistaken.
281C: A girl is lured into the forest
Dark fantasy middle school/ya novel from late 90s about girl who goes into forest to find brother who was lured in there by mysterious/sinister teenage boy. Other creepy children also live in the forest and heroine encounters many supernatural things on her journey to find her brother. Book cover had screaming face stuck in a wall.
280G: Learn to tell the time
The book I am interested in is one I had as a child, I think around 1988-1993 ish. It was a small white hardback cover and came with a watch which you could see in the cover (I’ll attach a picture of what I think it was or was like).
I remember that it was an illustrated book based in castle or palace or similar, the characters were either king, queen, prince, princess, and I remember one page was about them using a sundial to tell the time.
That’s all the information I have on it I’m afraid. I’m from the UK, so I’m not sure if this was also a U.S. issue book or not.
280F: Lost Cat in Rome found in Mouth of Truth Statue
Hi there, hoping you can help find a book. I remember reading it in the late 80s/early 90s. It was about a child in Rome who lost his or her cat. They go all over the city looking for it and eventually find the cat in the “mouth of truth” (La Bocca della Verità) statue. I remember it was a blue cover and fairly larger than a regular sized book. It was in English. Hoping you can help track it down!
280C: Little girl moves from crib to “big bed”
Little girl moves from crib to “big bed” It as a large sized book with colourful illustrations, and just one or two sentences per page. It talked about all the worries the little girl has about the move, and then how much she liked her new bed. I remember she said It was great because now there was room for daddy to sit with her at bedtime and give her “nose-nuzzles”. We used It 18 years ago to ease our daughter’s transition to a bed from her crib.