Category Archives: MG (grades 2-6)

344M: Historical Women Biographies For Kids

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During the 1968-69 school year, when I was in fourth grade, I read a series of biographies on famous historical women from my school library. The ones I remember are Harriet Tubman, Joan of Arc, Florence Nightingale, and Clara Barton, but I think there were others as well. I believe they were hardcover in the style of Nancy Drew books, but possibly a different size. I’ve found many books about these women on Ebay from that time frame, but none that “match” as parts of a series. Does anyone recognize this book series? Thank you for any assistance.

344D: Time Traveling Children Kidnap Girl Leaving London On Train (Solved!)

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Hi! I hope you can help me because this is driving me batty LOL. I believe it was a book or series of children’s books. There was some sort of isolated world outside time, but it was starting to show cracks and it was feared their world was ending. Two children believed a girl on a train being sent away from London during the war was responsible, so they traveled in time and kidnapped her . Ultimately, they were convinced she was innocent. Then, they had to hide her as a visiting cousin; there was a lot of advanced technology, like a money chip and a pen that had special abilities when she went to school with them. The place traded with other time eras; there was a river around it that played into the plot. Ultimately, I believe an uncle and his daughter were the bad guys. There was a battle; the children were locked up in some sort of phasing clock tower. There was a powerful, godlike couple who ultimately woke up/remembered their real selves and put everything to rights. I believe the girl’s family was saved and allowed to come live with her there. That’s all I can remember. Thanks very much!

344C: YA novel from 1960s; English girl fall in woods and breaks leg

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I am looking for a chapter book or YA novel I read in third grade in 1971-72. I believe it would have been published in the 1960s or between 1970-71 but it could also have been in 1950s.

It was about a girl in England who lived with her mother and no father. They lived in a flat, which was the first time I had encountered that word. The only thing I can distinctly remember was that the girl was hiking in the woods, alone, I believe, and fell and broke her leg and then had to figure out how to get help.

343Q: Boy Collects Golden Dragon Scales to Make A Dragon (Solved!)

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Here are the details of a book my dad read around 1960 (possibly as late as 1963, but unlikely).

Plot elements: A boy (named maybe Ling or Lo, or a hyphenated name with one of those syllables) goes on a long quest collecting golden dragon scales that in the end fit together like a puzzle and make a dragon.

Genre: kids chapter book

Publish date: likely late 40’s early 50’s (my dad’s best guess—it was a library book)

Physical description of book: blue cloth hardcover

Illustrations: he remembers an illustrative motif of cranes, like on chapter headings maybe

Some books he claims it is NOT that I’ve found:

  • Loot of the Flying Dragon (by Kenneth Payson Kempton)
  • The Pink Porcelain Pipe (by Pauline Scott)
  • The Overcoming of the Dragon (by LC Sturgis)
  • The Last Dragon (by Dan Totheroh)

Many thanks for whatever you can do! I’ll at least know I tried my best after gnawing this bone for decades.

343M: Girl on a Magic Quest

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Okay. I’ve been searching for this children’s book for literally over 15 years. I was probably about 10 years old when I visited the Orem Library. The librarian gave me this book telling me that I would probably love it. I read it, loved it, and that’s what got me started in my love of reading! I have since tried to find it with absolutely no luck. Here I will dedicate a post in the hopes that someone, somewhere will know what I am talking about. Here are the few details I know about the plot.

-Main character is a young girl.
-Girl goes to live with her aunts (might be good friends of parents and not relatives)
-Things seem normal except the girl is forbidden to read from a certain book the aunts have.
-One day the aunts get kidnapped and the girl must go into another world to find them.
-The girl has a companion that is a little dwarf, gnome, or other weird creature.
-As the girl progresses in her journey she learns new spells that help her progress.
-At one point the girl must get a new guide given to her by the bad guy (maybe) but she knows a spell that forces her old companion to tell the truth if the new guy is trustworthy so she gets a different one.

I know these details are really random but perhaps a random google search will get some stranger’s attention and they can help out. Or maybe one of you have just been holding out on me! 🙂

342W: An Out of This World Glowing Garden

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This is a book that I read when I was a preteen, so early 90’s. I am starting to think I made it up! I remember there was a girl who lived in a cabin and is an orphan (I think) and she finds these seeds that glow so she plants them. Then they grow into a garden that shines at night and works to call her family to her because it turns out she is not from earth and her family was looking for her.

342S: Second Grade Book

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I am trying to find a book that my teacher read to me in the second grade. I can remember the cover – lavender with a photo in the center and two snakes on either side. Snakes were a sort of trope in the book. It was either a coming of age or autobiography of a girl who lived in the SouthWestern US. Unfortunately, that is all I remember.

342N: The Magic Pencil (Solved!)

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I'm looking for a chapter book that I read when I was ~9 in the early 80s. It's about two kids (boy and girl) who find a magic pencil that changes things to whatever they write. I think they get it from a handyman that uses it to change the length of his ladder, the type of cookies in a box etc. They change their size to 4" and have adventures. I remember a chase with a cat and them visiting a cave of some sort.