Category Archives: MG (grades 2-6)

316W: School Girl Witch

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Stumped by witch book. I’m Looking for a children’s book I read in the UK in the mid to late 80’s. The front cover had an illustration of a school age witch with a green face and a plated braid which bends up over her head like a scorpion tail. I think there’s a black cat on the cover too. Typical school girl antics (if you’re a witch) plot wise. Think it was about a boarding school but not 100%. Definitely not the worst witch books. Slim book for about 8-9 year olds. That’s all I can remember. Hope you can help. Fingers crossed. Thanks in advance.

316U: Magic blue paint or a magic window in a boy’s bedroom

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My teacher read this story aloud in elementary school (mid 90s). I'm not sure if it was a short story or a chapter book. What I remember is that a boy is in his bedroom, which has no windows, and decides to paint a window onto his wall. After he paints the scene, it actually becomes a real place that he can travel to by climbing through the window. I also remember that the scene he painted was of a maple tree farm, and that when he climbed through he tasted some of the maple syrup that was coming from the trees.

316G: The tarnished castle

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Written before 1990.  It is a standard length children's story (circa 100 pages or more) about a group of children.  The first part of the story they have a playful time in a castle and a
moat etc...  It is described in such a lovely way.  The second part of the story (maybe they go back after they have grown
up?) they go back and it is described in a more realistic 'tarnished' way.  The moat is dirtied up and the grass has all died etc and it's not quite a castle etc etc etc....

315Z: Boy falls off a raft in a cave, discovers the outside world

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This was a book that an elementary school teacher read aloud to us (mid 90s), and she deliberately kept the title a secret so that we would have to come up with one on our own. What I remember of the book is that the boy lived with his community (family, friends) on rafts on a river that is entirely in a cave system. Importantly, they never leave the caves (I think the boy hypothesizes at one point that the people used to go into the caves for the winter, but lost their way out and have forgotten the exterior world over time?). The boy falls off the raft one night while everyone else is sleeping and loses his family because the rafts keep floating down the river. He eventually finds a hole to climb out of the cave and is stunned by the sunshine. After that, I don't remember any more of the story.

314R: Magical Powers to Teach Lessons

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As a child in the 1980s, I remember reading a chapter book (or a series of chapter books) about a older woman who had magical powers and befriended neighborhood children. I recall that the woman could cast spells and that the spells were used to teach the children lessons. One spell I recall is that if a child said a curse word, a black cloud would follow them around for days. I also recall that the woman had an old book with rose petals dried between the pages.

I recall the book fondly and would like to read it to my children.

314N: Magic Siblings Avoid Abduction

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This book was found in the children's section at my library around 1985, although it was likely older than that. A group of three or four (or more?) siblings have magic or psychic powers. I believe they can all move things without touching them and maybe fly? I think I remember two scenes: 1) the children were flying in the living room and broke a vase. They used their powers to clean up before mother saw. 2) Villians have followed the children to a movie theater. They escape by crawling under the seats.

Thanks for your efforts!

314D: Encyclopedia Brown without Mysteries (Solved)

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I have strong memories of reading a chapter book in my grade school library where Encyclopedia Brown (or maybe another boy genius) plays harmless pranks on this hometown with the cooperation of the other kids. I remember it as a special edition of Encyclopedia Brown outside of the series where he solves mysteries.

In one story, the kids take all of their change from purchases as pennies for a few weeks, building up a huge stockpile of pennies — and then on a predetermined day, they go on a spending spree all over town making payment with pennies, leading to overflowing cash registers and befuddled clerks. In another story, the kids

In another story, the boy genius bets a friend that he can fool the whole town into believing that an imaginary person exists, and manages to get a library card and open a bank account in that fictional person’s name. He also describes the appearance of that person enough times that he convinces a whole crowd that they have seen him. He eventually reveals his duplicity and everyone is shocked to learn that they were fooled.

I have done hundreds of keyword searches on Google to track down this book, and have completely failed. I hope you can help me!