Category Archives: MG (grades 2-6)

345D: Search for children’s book vaguely remembered – White Girl Joins African Tribe

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I am looking for a juvenile book I vaguely remember. I can remember the library I borrowed it from and the exact look of that library, but not the book title, author, or clear details!  My only memories of the book are: 
 
I believe it was a story about a white (American? British?) girl who somehow passes through (a mirror? a book?) into the life of an African tribal people. After becoming friends with (another child? the tribe?) she regrettably has to return to her modern life through the same (magic?) process she used getting there. I believe the friend/tribe give her a string of beads to remember them by (?).  The book would have been been appropriate reading for probably pre-puberty ages – 10-14? 
 
That’s all the info I have, and I hope you are NOT stumped! This book has always stayed in my mind, no matter how vague my memory is, and I want to read it again to find out why. 

345A: Geometric Mood Diary (Solved!)

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I have been searching for a book for a few years now without much success. I read it between the ages of 7-10 (I am 43), it was a chapter book in a diary format, the cover was black and white (maybe speckled?) and each diary entry had some sort of drawing — I want to say a geometric pattern to describe the mood of the entry. That is all i remember, besides the fact that I loved the book and continually checked it out from the 79th street public library in NYC.

344X: Secret Pointe Shoes

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I had a flash of a memory of a childhood book.  I have googled and googled but can’t find it, and it is driving me crazy!!!  So here goes the parts I remember:

It was a book about girls, not sure how many, that take ballet classes at a studio which I think was located in a mall or a strip mall.  Rival studio that is fancier is a possibility but more vague memory of that so could be wrong.  One of the girls sees a pair of pointe shoes in the store that are an unusual color, maybe purple?  And she decides she wants to get them and learn how to use them, but she does it in secret because her ballet teacher says she is not at all ready to start with pointe.  There is something that makes her feel like she is less than the other girls and that leads her to use the pointe shoes in secret.  I think she even ruins her feet and ballet progress in the process.  I also want to say that it is a part of a series, either a ballet series or as a ballet focused book in a larger series.  Also very good chance it was a book fair book , I got a lot of books that way.

344U: Grumpy Doll in Dollhouse

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• children’s book read in 2006-2011. Could have been quite old by then
• a new doll came to live in the doll house and didn’t trust the human caring for them, she stole things like a coin and a piece of hair to try and cast a spell on them
• the human returned from a trip and gave the doll something nice like a new rug or bed spread and it made the doll realize she was wanted and loved
• this was a traditional dollhouse – old and beautiful. The human was fixing it up and making it nice again. She was very thoughtful towards the dolls.
• this is not The Dolls’ House by Rumer Godden
• might have had a pink cover. It was a chapter book but not very lengthy

344S: Boy with a Magic Pencil?

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I recall a young adult chapter book from my youth (late 1970s-early 1980s) about a boy with a magic pencil. It is used like a regular pencil, but it might have been blue lead. Like a regular pencil, it needs to be sharpened, and gets slightly smaller each time. I can’t recall the things he made or did with it. Some dramatic emergency with the last bit of pencil.  Apologies but that’s all I remember.

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! 🙂