Category Archives: MG (grades 2-6)

296B: A secret note or message or clue

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I have no idea what the title is but the book would appeal to a 8-10 year old girl. It was in my grade school library. I remember that the girl was orphaned or sent to live with a relative, possibly a grandmother or aunt. I’m leaning toward aunt. The place is mysterious and there is a mystery of sorts. The key part I remember is the young girl protagonist finds a secret note or message or clue on paper under a loose brick, I believe around the pool or on the patio, but I’m 99% sure it was around the pool. This would have been around 1978-80, although the book may have been slightly older.

295Y: Young Reader Adventure with Plane Crashes, Loch Ness, and Balloon Races (Solved)

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This book was read in middle school. It featured four stories with the same gang of young boys. One story was of them faking a Loch Ness Monster using radio-controlled boat in their lake. Another was their search for a crashed airplane using radio direction finding. A third was their competing in a hot-air balloon race. The fourth I do not remember. This was probably published in the 80’s or late 70’s.

295X: ‘Through the chamber door’ or something about a conch (Solved)

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I am looking for a children’s chapter book that I read in the mid to late 80s about a brother and sister who become trapped in the center of a conch shell and have to solve riddles in order to open up each chamber of the conch to work their way back out to freedom. I can’t remember the author or title. The title might have included words like ‘through the chamber door’ or something about a conch, not sure.

295S: The Holy Island of Lindisfarne

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I’m looking for a children’s or YA novel about St. Cuthbert, the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, some children, and possibly a selkie (mythological creature). The story, as I remember, was somewhat mystical and had to do with St. Cuthbert. I would have read it in the late1960s— it’s not The Wind Eye by Robert Westell (1977), which was published too late to have been the book I read. I remember the cover being illustrated in shades of gray and white. It may have shown some birds flying around the island, which has a distinctively shaped profile.

295O: Camille, nicknamed Millie

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Juvenile historical fiction from the 1980s (probably) about a girl named Camille, nick-named Millie, who moves with her father into a house with her aunt, uncle, and two girl cousins. The book takes place in New York State or New England in 19th century. There are scenes of a fire with a bucket brigade and ice skating on a frozen pond. I feel like the author’s name started with a D. The book was probably less than 100 pages, and almost square in form. I checked it out from the school library.

295N: The Lonely Doll meets The Curious Clubhouse (Solved)

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I read a juvenile novel in the 1980s (from my school library). It may have been from the 1960s or 1970s about a very lonely girl who moved to a new house in the country, and while exploring, she found a secret playhouse that had dolls and teddy bears in it, and I think they came to life. Kind of like The Lonely Doll meets The Curious Clubhouse, but definitely not either of those! It had illustrations, maybe an orange cover, and I feel like Secret may have been in the title, and the author’s last name began with G or H?

294N: Boy with Toy Boat in Central Park

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I’m searching for a children’s chapter book that I read and loved when I was about 10 or 11 in the early 1970s. All I remember about it is that it was about a boy who lived in an apartment building near Central Park, and in the afternoons he and an older man (perhaps his grandfather?) would sail his toy boat in Central Park. (I’m not thinking of Stuart Little!) I think the apartment doorman might have been a character as well. My guess is that the book was written sometime in the mid-1960s.

294F: Magic Marbles (Solved!)

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This was a YA book that I read back in the 1960s or 70s about a girl who wanted a forever home. It might have been set in England. She had marbles, or maybe just one marble, that she thought carried power. At the end of the book, the marble rolled under the front porch of her new home and she decided that meant that they were there to stay.

293T: Girl visits magical world, stranger with furry coat

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This is a book that may be British. It may have Rebecca or Dreams in title. Or Emma or Milly. It’s a chapter book with some illustrations. A girl visits a dream world where there are friends or helpers. One is a tall man (maybe a giant) with a large furry coat. It may be yellow. There may be a room she’s in that’s like being inside a globe, with lots of locks. Also, she may have to solve a series of puzzles to go through this world.

293D: Friendship in a treehouse

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I would be so grateful if you could find my favorite chapter book as a child! It’s about a friendship between two girls, perhaps a summertime friendship. They spend time in a tree house together. The paperback cover painting was in browns and greens of the girls in the tree house. Likely, I bought it through Scholastic Books when they had those mini-catalogs sent to schools. It came out in paper sometime in the mid 1960s.