Category Archives: MG (grades 2-6)

245C: Purple Fabric Hardback Fairy Tale Collection Book With Many Illustrations

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I had this book for 11 years before losing it a couple years ago during some moves. I bought the book from my elementary school library in 1999-2000, in one of those sales where they get rid of old or damaged books. The book was hardback, felt like it had fabric over the hardback material but I don’t know that it ever had a dust jacket or anything. The cover was illustrated, with I think either a tower or the “man in the moon”, or both. The book was a purple-maroon color, possibly a faded dark blue the way dark blues and blacks might fade with bleach, but I’m pretty sure it was the purple-maroon color originally.

Some stories I remember, but can’t find exactly on any searches:
1. A poor man lets some elves/fairies eat the last of his food (bread and cheese), and they repay him by placing a coin on his oven that always is replaced when you remove it. I think it flies in from the window or something. He becomes rich, and marries a woman who is different from the other villagers, I think from another town/city. She is vain, and washes her face in milk to keep it pale, while other villagers wash their face in cold water to keep their cheeks rosy. The wife doesn’t like that no one has ever seen the elves/fairies, so she sneaks up on them one night and they disappear and take the money, leaving the man and wife poor.
2. A man sees these fairies dancing at night (either 8 or 12), and thinks one is incredibly beautiful, and describes her features to be like the moon and so forth. I believe her hair was black, not sure. He ends up kidnapping her to be his wife. She becomes very sad and either stops talking to him or tricks him into letting her go.
3. A girl is given 3 presents, which she opens when she needs help from I think her step mother, who makes her do ridiculous things. I think she helped an old lady, who gave her the presents. They might have just been called colorful boxes. One present was opened when she was told to make a cake, and the box contained a giant cake. The last box had a man/prince in it to take the girl away.
4. There was one about the man in the moon, a man built a Tower to reach the moon and I guess he ended up stuck there. Somewhere in the book is an illustration of the tower and of him in the moon, which was a full moon and a smiling face with crinkled eyes. It’s also possible I’m combining 2 stories, but I’m not sure.
5. A boy finds a leprechaun and gets it to reveal his pot of gold. The boy knows he can’t take his eyes off the leprechaun or it will vanish, but the leprechaun eventually tricks the boy into putting him in his pocket. As soon as the boy does this, he realizes what he has done and the leprechaun has disappeared.
6. There was a version of Rapunzel, not sure if that was the title of the story but I’m assuming so. A pregnant woman gets her husband to steal greens out of the witch’s garden, and the witch makes them give up the baby. The witch locks her in a tower, and eventually a prince rides by and climbs her hair, and they fall in love. The witch finds out and causes the prince to fall into brambles, blinding him, and eventually rapunzel finds him again, and cures him of his blindness with her tears.
7. There is also a version of Rumpelstiltskin, where he helps her spin golden thread for three days in exchange for her firstborn child. Then he gives her a chance to keep her child, if she can guess his name in 3 days. She eventually hears him singing his name, and gets to keep her baby.
I want to say there is a number in the title, like 100 or 50, and a list of all the stories in a table of contents. But I feel like that’s too many, so I could be wrong.

244F: Sisters, friendship, and paper dolls

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Two sisters, one late teens/early 20’s and one around 9 or 10. They are poor. I think the way it goes is that the younger sister makes a friend somehow and goes to her house to play or something. The friend is much more well off than the two sisters. The older sister comes to the house of the little sister’s friend also at some point. At the end the older sister and the little sister’s friend’s brother become boyfriend and girlfriend.

The one thing that really impressed me when I read it was that the two little girls cut out pictures of the models in catalogues and made paper doll families out of them and after reading that book my friends and I started doing that as well.
Thanks for the opportunity to say more about the story.  I hope someone else will recognize it.

244D: Synesthesia girl defeats corrupt Dystopian government (Solved)

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Probably 10 years ago, I read a young adult book that I cannot remember the title or author of. I also cannot remember the names of the characters. However, I can recall nearly the whole plot.

The main character is a girl who lives in a community that has rebuilt after the devastating sound wars. To avoid another sound war, they no longer sing or make music. They also all wear masks that they receive as young adults, to stay unified. Before they get their masks, they color a coat according to their ability by humming into a machine. The girl, however, does not seem to have a talent. She can see sounds as colors, but does not realize this is a talent, she just assumes everyone can do it. The girl is told that she will have another year to find her talent, but then she gets in trouble for sneaking in to watch the masking ceremony. She ends up having to work as a maid because of this. Then she does something else wrong and, to keep from being punished, she ends up running away outside the walls of her community. She finds a group of people who live outside the walls, and they teach her the true history of how the sound wars happened. The girl realizes that the people who are controlling her old community were the bad guys. She returns to save everyone, has an epic battle, and ends up using her gift to eventually conquer the corrupt rulers and free her people.

244A: UK Children’s Mystery (Solved)

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Looking for a UK children’s mystery novel published 1960-1970. Plot revolves around policeman stumped by robberies in which getaway vehicle is Morris Minor/Mini that always disappears. Case solved when officer notices (autistic?) boy who copies down all vehicle registration plate numbers while sitting on overpass daily, and from lists finds that ambulance always goes past shortly after robbery. Turns out the Morris is small enough to fit into ambulance. Officer risks job by insisting on searching every ambulance in vicinity after next robbery, and finds getaway car inside ambulance. Black and white sketch illustrations; probably library binding. Originally found in elementary school library in Southern California before 1974.

243H: Young Adult Book Based on Ancient Mythology

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In late 1950’s, early 60’s, I read a book from the Young Adult section of the library.  It had a dust jacket that I recall as darkish, perhaps blue or purple with people, maybe the children of the story.  The story was about a boy and girl (siblings?) who spied a wooden door in a culvert as they were passing by in a (carriage?).  They return on foot and upon entering, find Vulcan at his forge.  Reluctantly, he directs them to Pegasus.  They climb upon Pegasus’  back, and he flies to the Elysian Fields.  There is an illustration of Pegasus stretching out his dainty hoof to land gently with the children on his back.  I believe they meet other gods and goddesses also, but I do not recollect the specific incidents.

Thank you for any assistance you and your readers can share.

241F: Cliff Dwellers children’s book ca. 1950

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I owned this book around 1950 when I would have been 7 or 8. This was a thin book of a somewhat large format (8 x 10?), with dark blue cloth covers. The book was primarily text, with occasional full-page lithographed full color paintings. I am pretty sure the title contained the words “Cliff Dwellers”. It was about the “Anasazi” Indians of the Southwest (probably based on Mesa Verde), and was a fictional story involving two children (twins?) and their daily lives, finding water, helping harvest corn, and, what I most remember, negotiating the ladders to and from their cliff dwelling. I’ve searched the LOC on-line catalog, WorldCat, and Abebooks.com, with no success. Hope someone remembers this book.

241A: Chinese Dragons and Witches With Flying Hair

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A fantasy middle-grade novel I read in the mid-80s, with a green Chinese dragon on the cover. The dragon belonged to a Chinese girl who rode it in a circus and put on a thick Chinese accent for the punters, but could actually speak English perfectly.
She was one of the magical characters helping the two child protagonists on their adventure: another was a witch who had long hair which flew about when she was casting spells. She made an illusory double of one of the children (called a Semblance) so they wouldn’t be missed.
At one point the protagonists and their flying carpet were swallowed by some kind of evil spirit that had a dark stormy space inside it. They started calling the spirit the Glutton to make fun of it, and the witch put her head in her hands as if she was despairing so nobody could see her hair flying about when she used her magic to get them out.

240D: A summer of gardens, orchards and mysteries

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My teacher, in either elementary or middle school, read a book to our class about siblings who went to their grandmothers (or aunt’s) house to live for the summer. If I recall, one of the siblings, maybe the girl didn’t want to go. They play outside in the gardens and orchard and end up trying to solve a mystery which ends up having to do with a dollhouse.