Category Archives: MG (grades 2-6)

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

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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!

336W: The Apple Family

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I don’t know the title of the book or the author, but I believe it was probably a chapter book I would’ve read when age 10-14? Our library’s copy had a well worn green cover. It was about a family and they all had apple names, I think, like Granny Smith and Jonathon, etc. I think they were actually apples, rather than people? I know that is very little to go on! I would have been those ages from 1968-1972 and I think it was an older book then. I can still remember the feel of it in my hands, as I checked it out over and over.

336F: Children Find Fine Art

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This was a 90’s children’s mystery novel that I read as a 3rd or 4th grader in 1996 or so. It was an un-illustrated chapter book. I can’t remember much else about the plot other than the characters were sorting out someone’s estate and found a very fine piece of stained glass art (lamp, vase or pitcher perhaps). The author did an excellent job describing the art – that’s what all my friends and I loved about the book. I also remember at the end of the book they are able to see all of the other pieces of the art collection that belonged with it.

336E: Creepy Girl Holding Up Egg (Solved!)

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I read a book as a school aged kid in the 70’s and I think it was probably published in the 70’s.
The most memorable thing about it was the illustrations.  I found them so creepy, I could barely look at them.  Kind of like the illustration of Alice in Wonderland when her neck gets stretched by Tenniel.
The picture I remember most clearly was one that was a black and white drawing and the girl is holding a single egg in the kitchen.  The perspective is as if she’s holding the egg up to a camera on the ceiling.  She has large eyes and looks creepy.  Imagine Wednesday from the Addams Family holding the egg.
The plot was about a strange girl who moved next door to the main character – a girl of the same age I think.  Probably about my age at the time, 10 or 11.  I think the new girl holding the egg had some kind of magical powers.  I don’t remember liking the girl, so she wasn’t like a fun Pippi Longstocking character.  I think the setting was in the country.  Definitely not in the city.  The kitchen seems like a farm kitchen in a farm house.
I don’t think this was popular book at all.  I think I tried to make my friends read it to see if they found it as creepy as I did, and they declined.
I’m afraid that’s all I’ve got.  Thanks in advance!

335Y: Girl Finds The Buried Bodies In The Backyard Of New House

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Children's book--probably read in the mid-80's. Girl moves into a new house with her parents and triplet siblings. She is suspicious of the previous owner (deceased elderly woman) and investigates, eventually finding buried bodies in the backyard beside a fence. The book had a few sketch-like illustration of the sort a child would have drawn.

335S: Captive Beautiful Woman and Her Captive Aesthetically Pleasing Children (Solved!)

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I hope someone can help me with this one!
I’ll start with the part that I remember the most clearly – the part that has haunted me all these years for some inexplicable reason.
Two children are walking behind a beautiful woman down a long, grand corridor lined with mirrors. As they walk, the woman glances to the side to see their reflection in the mirrors.  She says to herself.  “Yes, that is better.  Much better.”  Because previously she had two large, beautiful, dangerous dogs (perhaps dobermans?) following her wherever she went.
I read the book in the mid 70’s, but it could have been written earlier than that.  I read a lot of old books as a kid.
The feel of the book is Gothic and dark.  Something like Wolves of Willoughby Chase  by Joan Aiken or a Bellairs book.  Or possibly even one of those creepy Scholastic paperbacks.  But for some reason I think the writing quality was pretty good.  Of course I was only around 10, so what did I know?
The children walking behind the woman are young and have been all dressed up.  Pre-puberty.  I guess you wouldn’t want sullen pimply teens following you around as decorative props?
I think the children are siblings, a boy and a girl?  Perhaps twins?  But that’s just a feeling.  Maybe because they’re so aesthetically pleasing to the beautiful woman?  In a way that a short, fat blond kid walking next to a tall, skinny redhead kid wouldn’t be.  Like an Edward Gorey drawing of two matching Victorian children in matching velvet outfits.
The children are there against their will.  Although it doesn’t seem like they got there by something as mundane as being thrown in your standard Pedo-Van.  I feel like there was some kind of magic involved.  Like a magic mirror or magic painting, something like that.  But without the humor and lightheartedness that say, an Edward Eager book would have.  These children are definitely in danger.  And are they in another dimension?  Another Time?  I don’t know.
I also think the woman may be held against her will as well.  Like some evil monster? power? man? is keeping her captive with his magic and brought the children there to appease her, but bringing her a couple of kidnapped children was hardly going to cheer her up given that she has zero freedom even though she does get to live in this fancy mansion? castle? wearing beautiful clothes.  She did seem quite depressed.
Does anyone remember anything that sounds like this?  I wish I could remember more.  And I wish I could trust what I think I remember.
Thank you in advance for your time!

335C: Bonnie’s First Crush Goes Awry From A Misunderstanding

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I am looking for a book called Bonnie. It may also be spelled Bonny. I read it in the early 1980's when I was in 4th or 5th grade. I believe it was set in the 1950's. The main character sang in an all girls chorus and had her first crush. I think I remember that they went ice skating for one of their dates, maybe their first date. But at some point, she thinks he likes someone else or doesn't like her anymore for some reason. Of course, in the end, it was all a misunderstanding. It was a chapter book and had some illustrations, and I remember the book I read had a yellow cover with a picture of the main character (sketched).

334V: Mystery series probably published 1940-1970 (Solved!)

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I do not know the name of any of the books in the series, but I can describe at least one of the covers. Our library had 4 books but there may have been more. All of the books had a deep purple cover. One had a mansion or haunted house on top of a hill or cliff. For some reason murder mansion, Whispering Hill, sticks in my head. I believe there were 2 or 3 kids and one had an odd name. Definitely not the more prolific series, Three Investigators, Hardy Boys, etc. The books were hardcover and not very thick, 70-80 pages and meant for grades 3-6. I hope you can find the series I am looking for.