Category Archives: MG (grades 2-6)

269E: Greek mythological mash-up

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This was a YA or middle-grade novel that I read in the late ’90s. It was a very loose Greek myth retelling that mashed together many familiar mythological elements into an original plot. Possible characters: Perseus, Medusa, Pan, Echo, Iphigenia. Some or all of it took place on an island which had a network of caves. One of the characters–maybe a plucky young girl–was stranded(?) on the island and encountered someone who became a friend/ally while exploring these caves. I also remember music magically wafting through the caves. Maybe that’s where Pan comes in?

The copy I had was paperback with some blue and purple on the cover. The physical book and style of writing didn’t strike me as “old-fashioned,” so I’m guessing it had been published in the ’80’s or ’90s…but I could be wrong about that.

I’m fairly certain the author was a woman.

Thanks so much for helping me solve this mystery! I remember absolutely loving this book.

266D: Scary picture book about a monster that constructs itself from other animals/plants

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I’m hoping you’ll be able to help me find a picture book from my childhood that I have been searching for for years. My mum borrowed it from our local library (in Victoria, Australia) sometime in the 90s, perhaps any time from 1997 onwards. It was a dark (both in theme and illustration style) picture book with detailed illustrations similar to those of Gary Crew’s The Watertower. I think it was designed for older readers (8-12 years). I used to think the title was Is Any Body There?, but I’ve searched so many libraries, bookstores and databases for it that I must have got the title wrong. 

In the book, the protagonist is walking through different landscapes that have recently been destroyed by something or someone. The protagonist walks into the woods and says “Is any body there?” (or something along those lines). The wood’s inhabitants reply something like “Yes, somebody was here”, and the trees say something like “It took our branches”.  I think other animals in the woodland also said that they had parts stolen from them, but I can only remember the trees. 


The protagonist continues journeying and reaches a lake, where they also say, “Is any body there?”. The inhabitants of the lake also respond “Yes, somebody was here”, and say that something stole their body parts too. I can only remember the fish saying “It stole our eyes”. The illustrations very vividly depicted the fish under the water, with empty eye sockets.


The protagonist follows the trail of destruction through several other landscapes (sorry, I can’t remember them) and arrives at a house in a forest (I think). The protagonist makes their way to the basement, where they say for the final time, “Is any body there?”. A response comes from the darkness: “Yes, some body is here”. On the final page, there is a detailed illustration of a monster that is clearly constructed from all of the parts stolen from the animals, trees and environments. 

The illustrations were in dark, earthy shades and I think it’s possible that the narration was either first- or second-person to heighten the immersion, but I can’t remember much more about the book than that. I’ve spoken to several librarians (including one who worked at the library we borrowed the book from originally) and booksellers, and no one knows of this book. Only my sister remembers it, otherwise I would have thought I’d fabricated it entirely. 

Any help in solving this would be very, very much appreciated – this mystery has been annoying me for too long! 

 

Many thanks,

265B: ’80s or ’90s children’s books about a lottery mystery (Solved)

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This one has been bugging me for years! I read this book in the late ’80s or early ’90s, and I don’t remember much about it other than these two things: (1) there was some sort of mystery with a lottery ticket, and I’m pretty sure what had happened was that the guy selling tickets at the store somehow knew the ticket was a winner and kept it for himself – I want to say the person who was trying to buy it was mentally challenged in some way perhaps, or there was some other reason why he thought the person wouldn’t appreciate the winning ticket; and (2) there’s a scene where the main character (a young girl) is in a body of water and trying to hide from a boat – I’m pretty sure it’s night and that she is floating in an inner tube, and to hide, she ducks her head inside the tube. Oh, and I think the cover was edged in a bright blue. Thanks!

265A: A boy lives in the rural south after WWII

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It was a young person’s book which I read when I was 10 or 12 years old in Canada.  It would have been in the late 1960’s or early 1970’s when I found it in our school library. It was set in the Southern USA and I think that the period was shortly after WWII. The book was the story of a boy that was staying with a family in a big old rural home. There was something about hunting raccoons at night with dogs.  I think there was actually quite a bit about the dogs and something sad happened to one of them. There was something about hearing trains running in the distance at night.  There was something sad associated with this (maybe to do with the dogs?). The family had a black (I think) cook with whom the boy spent considerable time.  She was rather nurturing.  And a WWII vet who was rather troubled would come to the back/kitchen door and she would give him food.  I think that the boy was afraid of him. My recollection is that it was a rather haunting, sentimental, sad and yet hopeful story.  I think that the boy was trying to determine how he fit into the world.

264C: Boy Inventor solves mysteries through creativity (Solved)

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From the early 1960’s, a young boy invents various devices in his home to solve mysteries.  He can’t wake up, so he invents an alarm clock with string attached to his toe – alarm goes off, string winds up and tugs his toe. Does he invent a periscope to spy on a suspicious neighbor?

Name might have been Henry (perhaps with alliterative last name).  Several books were published with his adventures, thin young (young?) adult fiction.

264B: 60’s Two Girls Living on Opposite sides of a River

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I had a book when I was a young person (10 to 12 year old maybe) in the 60’s, where there were two girls living with their respective families on either side of a river. It was written from the perspective of one of the girls, whom I think was poorer than the family on the other side, and she always looked on the other girl’s life with envy. I cannot remember the event that led to her ending up on the other side of the river and living with the other family but when this happened she was then in a position of looking across the river at her own family, missing them and realising the folly of her original yearnings. I have a feeling it may have been a Christian book – maybe Sunday school prize but I’m not certain about that. Any light shed on the name of the book would be appreciated.

PS, someone elsewhere suggested “We Live by the River” by Lois Lenski but this is not it.

263C: Fairy fantasy from the 60’s or 70’s (Solved)

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I read the book around 1978-1983. It was a fantasy with a child who stayed with family and went into the woods and found a passage to a fantasy world of fairies which she ended up traveling to. The book had a title that was a play on Maestro or some other musical name. The cover of the book was brownish red with the face of one of the fairies. The face was very large and very round(side-wise oval) and with a very wide mouth. I was between 9-12 yo when I read it but this is what I remember.