Category Archives: MG (grades 2-6)

145C: Horror story Collection (solved)

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This was a collection of short horror stories I read in the early 90s. The version I read was hardcover with an illustration of leaves swirling down a hallway. Here’s what else I remember: 

1. A boy who hates raking leaves is attacked by them

2. A depressed girl meets a giant talking rabbit who also plays the fiddle

3. A girl babysits twins with a complicated ritual that they say keeps monsters from eating them. The babysitter is saved from an intruder by these monsters because he didn’t know the ritual and she did. 

4. A boy writes a screenplay about defeating brain-eating alien mosquitoes.  Later it turns out that the studio executive he gave the screenplay to is a brain-eating alien mosquito!

 5. A young boy who’s desperately trying to lose weight keeps fantasizing about his favorite junk cereal. Then there’s a scene where I think a Thanksgiving turkey comes to life? But mainly he just really wants that cereal.

145B: Vegetarian Meals Embarrass Girl (solved)

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A girl in middle(?) school finds out that her mother has become vegetarian during the summer and wants her to do the same. The kid is so embarrassed by the new style of lunches her mom makes that she starts eating under the bleachers.   People start eating with her because she tells them that she’s part of a club, and they all eventually have dinner at her house and the girl decides that she’s not embarrassed anymore.   A few days later, her mom (who the girl describes as changing her mind frequently) decides that she wants to start eating meat again. The girl gets upset because she’d just started getting used to things. She and her mom discuss this and decide that from now on the girl can mostly choose her own meals. 

145A: Unicorn History (solved)

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This was a book read in the late 80s which presented the unicorn as history instead of myth. The drawings were in brown and white and done to look as though they were very old.   The basis of the book was the unicorn as an angelic creature, and one of the stories described it fighting demons disguised as dragons.   I’ve already checked the books of Bruce Coville and Jane Yolen – nothing. 

 

144I: Cabbage air freshener and a magical world?

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YA or kids’ book, fantasy or magical realism.  Protagonist is a young girl.  She gets sent to the store to buy something with a wick — either an air freshener or a candle?  The one she buys is the last on the shelf, it’s in a dented can, and it smells like something you wouldn’t want air freshener to smell like.  I think it’s either cabbages or broccoli.  It’s also magical, and either gives her access to a magical world or brings her a friend/companion from a magical world.  That’s all in the book’s set-up, like in the first chapter.  No idea what happens from there.

 

144D: Apprentice Witch summons frog-like helper (solved)

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Checked out of the library in the early 80s.
Hardback, tan cover with a cauldron on the front, green smoke coming out of the caldron and wrapping around the back.
An apprentice witch’s mistress is accused of some crime by other witches and taken away. The apprentice tries to find the real culprit. She is able to summon a frog-like helper who knows what is going on. Froggie at first cannot answer her questions, but hints broadly. She finds the next part of the spell and he is able to answer “yes” or “no”. Then she finds the last part and he can give full answers. (There is a wand or a book involved, I think)? If I’m not getting this confused with a different book, at some point she allies herself with two children from the circus who are trapeze artists.

 

144B: 1950’s YA boy & dad visit Abe Lincoln sites

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I Have been looking for over 50 years for a book I read during the late 50’s, most likely an offering from from the Weekly Reader’s Book Club or some other monthly book club of the era.

My hazy memory is that a boy and his dad (perhaps whole family), visit Lincoln’s birth site, etc., on some kind of vacation or road trip. Another book in this club was No Children, No Pets. Help! This is a chapter book.

 

144A: A Shipwrecked Rabbit Reflects (solved)

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This is the second of two books I read in elementary school more than 50 years ago, circa 1960. (I describe the first one in the “A Salmon’s Life Story” stumper.) They connected me with thoughts and feelings way beyond my tender years. I’ve never forgotten either one and would love to read them again.

This book was about a rabbit whom I’m fairly sure was a farmer. Early in the book he ignores a neighbor farmer who happened to be a skunk, because one simply doesn’t talk to skunks. Once shipwrecked, he has time to reflect on his life and realizes he had been wrong to snub his neighbor. The sentence that sticks in my memory is “he wished he had been kinder to the skunk,” or words to that effect. I’ve included a sketch of what I seem to remember the rabbit looked like – very sketchily drawn, very little facial expression.

The rabbit stood upright and wore only pants which I believe were solid black.  (It’s possible I might be remembering a rabbit from an entirely different book, but I’m fairly sure he’s in the one I’m seeking.)

This was more than a half century ago, but I’ve never forgotten either of these two books. If I’ve grown into any kind of thoughtful person, they definitely helped point me in that direction.

Thank you!

 

143E: Dog saves lost kids at abandoned lake house

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Children’s novel I read in the 90s about two kids who get lost in the woods or “brush”, they find a large abandoned Victorian-looking house beside a lake to take shelter in. They survive off the overgrown garden with rhubarb and raspberries, and fishing from the lake. Their large black shaggy dog, always has hair falling in their eyes (possibly named Sadie?) ends up finding them and returning them to safety.

The book’s cover was yellow/beige, had an oval frame with the shaggy dog’s head extending out like a photograph. Many many thanks for your help!!

 

142C: Scholastic Short Story Contest Winner – Gargoyles come to life! (solved)

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I am looking for a book I bought at school thru the Scholastic Book Club, 1982-1986.
The author was 18 and had written a short story that won a contest. The book I bought was the longer version of that story written after the contest, althou it was only around 120 pages I believe.
The story was about a misfit high school boy who made models of gargoyle-like creatures that were about 3 feet tall and for some reason they came to life. The cover was of the boy in his living room and in the background on the stairs was a set of gargoyle legs coming to get him.
I called Scholastic a few years ago to ask about contest winners as I thought it would be the
easiest way to find a name but they referred me to their Canadian office and they never got back to me.