Category Archives: MG (grades 2-6)

338S: Chad’s Quest to Find Home

A book was read aloud to my second grade class in 1955.   The book was as I recall about a boy named CHAD ???   who was lost and was on a quest with the help of others along the way to find his home (I think he was from a wealthy or royal family). After a series of adventures he did indeed make it home.  The only adventure I think that I remember (60 years ago) he and his pals came upon a remote steep canyon the floor of which  was littered with precious stones. They threw raw meat into the canyon and buzzards picked up the meat – they ate the meat on the ground level and left the stones for Chad and his pals .  I know this is vague and may not be very reliable but perhaps you can find the book title. It is funny the things that dwell in the memories of childhood. The story was a great adventure for the class of 2nd graders.

338R: Young adult, San Francisco, Russian cosmonaut

I am looking for a young adult (probably actually middle grade) book I read when I was younger. I just remember bits and pieces–it was about a girl who lived in San Francisco, and she was interested in the first female astronaut,. She uses her whole name: Valentina Vladimirovna Nikolaeva Tereshkova (which is why I know it by heart even 20ish years later). The only other thing I really remember is the protagonist wasn’t Asian but would go to a little Chinese cafe or bakery after school to get a snack. The book would sprinkle in a few Spanish and Chinese words (it’s where I learned what shumai were) and would translate them in a footnote.
I remember the cover being bright and busy–orange and pink, with a lot of design on it, and I think the book was fairly thick, probably 200 pages. Does this ring any bells?

338M: YA fiction Ruby Cross of Acapulco (Solved!)

I’ve been searching for this book for years. I read it in the 6th grade, twenty-one years ago. My old teacher didn’t remember it, and I don’t recall the title or author. It seems that it was an older book, possibly from the 50s or 60s. There were a couple black and white sketches in it.
I remember most of the plot. A girl named Samantha lived in Boston with her mother (father deceased), who then died, leaving her an orphan. Her mother’s dying words were something to the effect of keeping the family heirloom safe. A ruby cross stolen from Acapulco.
Samantha is sent to live with her relatives in Hawaii (during the life of Princess Liliuokalani – I think she even had tea with her, or met her in the story). She has a cousin her own age and she experiences lots of new things there, but trouble turns up as men seeking the ruby cross, which she hid in a cave. She ends up kidnapped and having to show them where it is, but is rescued my a family friend, Andrew. All ends well. She ends up marrying Andrew, and they return the cross to Acapulco at the end of the book.

 

338I: Kids trapped in house, chased by a mummy and Anubis

I am looking for a children’s book I read between 1985-1988. Maybe a scholastic book. It had a dark yellow paper back cover. It was a mystery book. It was geared for the 3rd to 5th grade crowd.

It was about a boy and a girl (siblings maybe) that were trapped in a house.  There was a mummy and a statue of Anubis that came alive and chased them around the house. The whole book took place in one night

Please help me. I have been going crazy trying to remember!

338D: Childhood Series – Encyclopedias?

I attended Plat Elementary School in Colgate, WI and as a child in the 1st-4th grades I recall going to the tiny school’s library and viewing a series of books – larger hard cover books – almost set up like an encyclopedia series. In one book there was a story featuring a giant eagle (possibly a thunderbird) carrying a little girl away on a mountain (or wilderness path of sorts). She had a gold dress on and wore pigtails. She was reaching out in the air in panic and there was a gentleman who was running after her in the background – I believe he had a green cap on and possibly suspenders – I thought he was German or Bavarian or from Europe (possibly the Canadian thunderbird story). The graphics looked very 50s – full color. In one of the other books of the series, there was a story about a tribe from Africa and they were showing them with spears defending against a giant and wild baboon with his mouth wide open attacking the men. They were carrying shields as well and this was also in full color.

That’s all I remember but wish I knew what this series was. Any help you can offer is greatly appreciated.

338A: The Mystery of the Missing Twin (or maybe sister)

This is a kids mystery book, probably written in the early 70s.  The author’s last name was at the end of the alphabet–Mayba a W.  
Two sisters–I think twins, but they may be triplets, where two are identical and the third isn’t.  The girls are on vacation in either Newfoundland or Nova Scotia.  They run into another girl who looks exactly like one (or two) of them.  the non-identical sister is convinced she’s adopted, and that the girl they saw is the actual twin (or triplet) of the others.  They try to find the girl again, but she’s been kidnapped.  
 
There’s a whole mystery involving caves and some missing jewelry? The parents are kind of cagey about why they’re In Canada, so they’re not a lot of help, although they are present. They’re at a lawyers office quite often, giving the girls unsupervised time.  They use the resemblance between the kidnapped girl and the sister to trap the crooks somehow, with the fathers involvement.

 
At the end, it’s revealed that the kidnapped girl is their cousin, which is why she looks like them. I think the parents were trying to arrange to adopt her.
 
I’ve been trying to remember this for awhile, but can’t.  Googling just brings up a lot of results, which aren’t helpful.
 
Thanks for any help!

 

337V: Society that enjoys watercress sandwiches (Solved!)

I read this book in six grade in the mid-80s.  I think it was a fantasy type story.  This society had once been in contact with humans (or maybe just one human).  He may have come over the mountains on a hot air balloon.


They got a few things confused about humans.  For example, they had a painting of a tree and a diagram of a family tree (genealogy chart).  They called the genealogy chart a picture and the painting of the tree a family tree.  So everyone in this society had a very carefully tended “family tree” in their yard.  Unfortunately, I remember nothing about the actual plot.

337C: Series depicts boy growing up on the American frontier

Back in 1968-9 my teacher read our class a book about a boy and his experiences growing up on the American frontier after the American revolution, say 1800-1820 or so.  There was later a second book about this boy who was now experiencing the American drive to the west and the beginning of the railroad age as the new technology was developing.

I don’t remember the name of the books or their author but it was a book my local school had purchased.

336Y: Pioneer Girl Loses Locket, Then Family, Then Works Her Way To New Home (Solved!)

This book was one I read in maybe elementary or middle school (between 2000-2006) that I have been unable to find anything about for years. I’ve googled every detail I remember, called libraries and purchased books online that I thought might be it only to be disappointed.

The books cover I think was beige or brown, with maybe the back of a covered wagon on it?

It starts out that the family of the girl the book is centered on is moving to settle land in maybe the west? I assume they are settlers or pioneers. They are going to a big wooded area to build a log cabin. She has a little brother or possibly little sister.

Before they depart, the girl’s grandmother gives her a locket with a piece of her hair in it to take along with her. I remember the hair maybe being brown or gold and the grandmother joking her hair had not always been silver. They leave and along the way they stop at an inn/tavern? Some men try to mug or harass them and the little girl’s braids are tugged by these men hard enough to hurt. That night she was so upset about this that she took a pocketknife and sawed them right off at the base. Her hair was very short after doing it. Her mother is very upset when she wakes up to discover this and smooths them out on her lap. Her younger sibling remarks they looked like maple syrup? I could be falsely remembering that. The father was very angry, thinking those men had done this to his daughter in the dead of night. The girl admits it was her, though.

They leave this area and somewhere along the way it starts to storm horribly. The children are in the back of the covered wagon resting. The younger sibling is asleep and somehow the girl’s locket falls off the wagon. I distinctly remember her hopping off the wagon and it explaining she concentrated very hard to visualize where she saw it fall. She plunged her hand into a puddle and felt something cold, her locket! She found it and tried to run to catch up to the wagon, but could not for whatever reason. The storm was too loud for her family to hear her shouting to them, so she was left behind.

She now has to go the direction she knows her family is going and find them. The rest of the book describes her journey.

At one point, she finds her way to another inn where she begs for food. The owner is a woman who makes her work for her food, clearing the tables. When she is done, the innkeeper sits down with the little girl and watches her eat the scraps and leftovers. She is allowed to stay so long as she works. There are two? other girls staying there as well. They make fun of her short hair calling her “fuzzy” as a mean nickname. One night she has trouble getting to sleep and somehow sloshes pickle juice onto her clothes. The other girls kick her out of bed because she stinks, so she gets up and leaves.

Along the way she is walking through a wood and encounters a hunter? who she is afraid of. The hunter realizes this and starts to tell a story or sing so that she comes out and comes to him. He remarks he thought she was a little boy. The man is kind and helps her find her way. It’s blurry here, but he either helps her find a sign to follow or he helps her all the way to her family. When they get close to her family, she observes the trees are all cut from the very tops. Someone explains that they were cutting the trees down and cutting off the narrow part on the top and when they do that, the trees base is so heavy it ends up standing back up by itself with a loud “thump”? Sounds weird so don’t take this detail to heart.

She does find her family eventually and its great and her father has already begun work on their cabin. They celebrate with new neighbors and family. There is dancing and everything. The mother ties a ribbon in her daughter’s short hair and runs her fingers through it, remarking on how there was a natural curl to it. I think the girl dances with the hunter that helped her? and that’s the end of what I remember.

I think maybe there might be “home” or “journey” in the title but I have expanded beyond that.

It is a lot of info but I have dug and dug and I haven’t found anything for this book. I know more of what book it is NOT than I do about what it is. I’ve looked over every archive of ‘pioneer’, ‘covered wagon’, and ‘Oregon trail’ on the internet.

It is none of the little house books, it is NOT Ellie by Dean Cummings. This was the closest I could find to it and bought it because there was no summary of the book online. It is not Painted Sky, not Sarah Plain and Tall. It is not Pioneer Girl. I’ve looked at the Dear/My America books and it doesn’t seem to be any of those. I’m super stuck on this.

Thanks for any help!