Greek mythology picture book published sometime before 2003. It has a brown cover. The pictures are in color. A specific picture, I recall, is a cyclops (probably Polyphemus) eating babies.
250C: Greek mythology book
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Category Archives: 1990s-
249G: Treasure concealed in a barn
I read this book in the 90’s but do not know if it was published prior.
There is a young boy whom begrudgingly goes to a family members home (may be a grandparent although I do not recall this aspect specifically). I think it was for his summer vacation. There is a local legend of missing treasure, maybe it was stolen? Many people have looked for the treasure over the years, but of course the boy finds it in a barn. I think the barn was on the property where he had been staying for the summer.
The treasure had been melted down and molded/crafted into items commonly found in a barn and covered or painted to conceal it. I believe he chipped off some paint of a candle stick or something, and the wagon in the barn actually was made of gold and also painted or covered in disguise. I hope this is enough to figure this out, I really loved the book as a kid and now want to read it to my children.
249F: A girl finds another world at the end of a tunnel (Solved)
This was a three book series I read a few years ago. My library had them in the “young adult” section. I remember the book cover of one was green, I know one had vines on it. The book was about a girl and her family lived on a kind of farm and she finds this kind of tunnel. On the other side was a whole “colony” of these dwarf like things some of them had wings. There was this kind of Pegasus animal, it was small though and horse-like but had wings. I believe in the second book maybe the third the little girl gets sent to a boarding school and everyone thinks she crazy because she talks about these dwarf things.
One part of the book the Pegasus animal gets hurt and the girl takes care of it for a while in a sort of shed that her family no longer uses. At one point, I know, the two of them spend the night in a tree house sort of thing near the girls house. I know as you read the books it went back and forth of who was “narrating” like one or two chapters would be the girl side and then one or two chapters would be from the “dwarfs” side.
It was a kinda confusing series because it ended up that this little girl had had another life or something a long those lines. I don’t know how much help that is. There was something about a magical “touchstone” that guided the “dwarfs” they had migrated and at the end of the book they migrate again.
248G: Farida story in reading textbook
Hello Book Stumpers,
I am looking for an old reading textbook from grade 4, 5, or 6. Publication would have been late 1970s to early 1990s. I recall the cover had an underwater photo of a scuba diver or snorkeler, but this memory is a bit fuzzy. The cover was dark in color; lots of deep blues and blacks. A particular story I remember from the book was a Middle Eastern, Arabic, or African folk tale about a girl named Farida (or something similar). The story illustrations included a camel. This story may have involved weaving or a loom, but I am not positive about that point.
Some other information that may be useful. This book came from my grandmother, who taught grade 5 and 6 reading. Her school tended to use the Scott, Foresman readers and Ginn readers. For example, she also gave me “The Sun that Warms” Ginn reading level 11 (c) 1973, “Dream Chasers” Ginn reading level 11 (c) 1989, and “Three Cheers” Scott, Foresman reading level 10 (c) 1987. The book I am searching for may be from one of those series.
Thank you for any help or advice you can give.
247B: Girl in the Mirror/Night Carnival
In this short story/book a girl finds herself in a night carnival. The climax in this story is very similar to the, Come Back Lucy by Pamela Sykes.
This short story, however, I found it at a library a library and was never ever to re-find the story on the shelves or in its database. I believe the story was in an anthology of short stories.
The story is centered in an almost 1950s style where a little girl interacts with another girl in a mirror. The girl (main character) mysteriously falls into her mirror and finds herself in a dark somewhat spooky place.
As I recall, she sees a carnival in the distance. I believe the carnival is a type of ethereal place and is ghoul like. My favorite excerpt, “she found herself on a path dimly lit by the dancing of fireflies.”
I recall she sits down and cries. She tries to get back into the mirror that she fell out of and it appears she cannot escape the dark, Gothic world in which she landed. Her sobbing countenance becomes the reflection that a new girl sees in her mirror. This temporal/spatial rift that the girl finds herself in is somehow a trap that is now the main character’s punishment for her self-obsession.
What was most intriguing about this story was that it was dark, twisted and yet eerily beautiful. Strong visuals paint the story and it was from the late 1960s to early 1980s. That is, within the time frame of the Reader’s Digest short story anthologies.
246B: An award winner with a Polynesian theme
Searching for a children’s book printed no later than the 1990s. The cover featured an illustration of a Hawaiian girl in the foreground, with a volcano in the background. I think the book title may have included a Hawaiian girl’s name, but I’m not sure about that. I believe it had received an award; I think there was a gold seal featured on the cover as well. Hope you can help identify the book title and author!!!
245B: Picture books – haunted house & ship that grows legs (Solved)
“I’m looking for a series of picture books, at least I think it was a series, I know there were at least two. I read them both in the mid-late 90s. The first one was about a haunted house or hotel and each double page spread showed a cross-section of the building with the inhabitants of each room visible. As you moved through the book the story within each room progressed and the characters moved from room to room and the stories spilled into each other. By the very last double page spread I remember all hell had broken loose and the building was (I think) starting to collapse.
The second book was a similar concept except it was set on a steamboat carrying passengers on the sea. Again, you could see all the ship’s passengers. I remember that at some point a magic potion was accidentally spilled into the ship’s boiler and the ship grew legs and started to walk on land.
I think the books were wordless.
Any help is much appreciated.
245A: What’s a Waney
I’m looking for a children’s picture book that we read around the late 80s or early 90s, although it may have been published earlier. A child looks for his/her lost sibling (Wayne or Wanie, or Waney?) on a farm and maybe in other locations. I specifically remember one part where he goes into a chicken house asking if they’ve seen Wayne, and the chickens ask “What’s a waney??” I’ve googled every variation on those words/spellings but can’t find anything! I think I remember full color illustrations, but my mom thinks they may have been line drawings.
244D: Synesthesia girl defeats corrupt Dystopian government (Solved)
Probably 10 years ago, I read a young adult book that I cannot remember the title or author of. I also cannot remember the names of the characters. However, I can recall nearly the whole plot.
The main character is a girl who lives in a community that has rebuilt after the devastating sound wars. To avoid another sound war, they no longer sing or make music. They also all wear masks that they receive as young adults, to stay unified. Before they get their masks, they color a coat according to their ability by humming into a machine. The girl, however, does not seem to have a talent. She can see sounds as colors, but does not realize this is a talent, she just assumes everyone can do it. The girl is told that she will have another year to find her talent, but then she gets in trouble for sneaking in to watch the masking ceremony. She ends up having to work as a maid because of this. Then she does something else wrong and, to keep from being punished, she ends up running away outside the walls of her community. She finds a group of people who live outside the walls, and they teach her the true history of how the sound wars happened. The girl realizes that the people who are controlling her old community were the bad guys. She returns to save everyone, has an epic battle, and ends up using her gift to eventually conquer the corrupt rulers and free her people.
243E: Main Character Travels Through Time
It’s a children’s book, maybe one of a series, published sometime between 1993-1997. In the book, at one point the main character travels forward in time to find his future daughter being sucked into some sort of portal. There is an illustration of this.