Category Archives: Status

378R: Surreal Nautical Quest for Strange Creature

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I’m looking for the title of a picture book that I read as a child in the mid-1990s. I believe the book was written in the 1980s or 90s, though it could also be from the 70s. I don’t remember any part of the title. It was a large-format hardcover edition.

It features illustrations with a watercolor style and a brightly colored, somewhat flat, surreal aesthetic with greatly exaggerated proportions. Its protagonist is an explorer who is dressed in a blue 19th-century naval outfit and sailing a large (and very tall) ship by himself.

He is searching for a rare creature that has some giraffe-like features and eats bananas, and on every page you can see that this creature is following him just out of sight. During his exploration, the protagonist meets several huge, frightening monsters, one of which I seem to recall was named the “purple lumpy thumpet”.

When the explorer finally finds his creature, it is revealed that it has many babies, and also that the monsters he encountered earlier were all friendly. All characters then have a picnic together on an island.

As a young child I read this book over and over again, captivated by its unique blend of unsettling, dreamlike  visuals and mischievous, lighthearted storytelling. I have now been searching for its title for nearly a decade with no luck, and just found out about this service.

378Q: My Last Hope

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I’m looking for a children’s picture book, likely published circa 1950 but certainly before 1960. I have very little for you to go on but I know it was a reddish-orange hardcover, wider than tall, and illustrated in black, white, gray, and red. The illustrations included a boy with a pot on his head (it was not Johnny Appleseed), and stuffed inside a ball of string or spaghetti (not Eddie Spaghetti). It could have had to do with him trying to find a costume for a party or something of that nature. It’s long out of print and certainly not a Caldecott or other award winner, but likely a 32-pager, at best. Any help would be appreciated! Thank you!!

378P: Fantasy World, Possibly Audio Book

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Fantasy novel: man transported from his world to new world, desert merchants, secretly intelligent lizard mounts, magical deception, return to own world not possible

Genre: Fantasy (possibly independently published or audio-original)

Publication date: Likely within the last 15 years (2008–2023)
Plot summary & memorable details:
I’m trying to identify a fantasy novel (which I most likely encountered as an audiobook) set primarily in a (sometimes desert-like) fantasy world. The main character, originally from his own world (not Earth), faces trouble early on from a powerful noble, possibly a count or baron. He might have financial troubles, or so. The story in his original world continues for some time, even after he is transported to this new world and I seem to remember someone who either transported him there or is otherwise important to this event – like a magician, warlock, or so, but someone influential. I do not remember the exact reason why this transport occurred, possibly to get rid of the main character. The setting is medieval fantasy, not our earth or modern times.

One of the first scenes I remember as him getting his bearings in the desert and meeting a figure, possibly a djinn or something of this kind, although this is quite fuzzy in my memory. 

Early in the story, he meets desert merchants riding unusual, lizard-like mounts who help im traverse a desert, maybe in exchange for work or help. Later, the merchants are attacked and killed in the desert. To one merchant’s horror, these mounts reveal themselves as intelligent, malevolent, and capable of speech—secretly allowing themselves to be used as mounts to further their hidden agenda (though this wasn’t necessarily central to the main plot).

The protagonist participates in a war or conflict between two factions or kingdoms, one notably wealthy—possibly merchant-controlled. He also travels with a female companion, I believe. Toward the story’s end, another character pretends to help them return to their/his home world using magic but instead puts them to sleep, later admitting he either lacked the power or knowledge to actually teleport them. In the end, I think they accept not being able to return.

I’m not sure if it is a series or not, and I think I have listened to it as an audio book on either audible or youtube – though having looked through my audible library, it must have been on youtube.
I tried AI search like ChatGPT or Perplexity, but they couldn’t find anything on the web.

Thanks!

378M: Scary Story – Mr. Pepper, the stuttering phantom with a sewing machine

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It was a story in a short stories book I read in the mid-1990s. A person describes being woken in the middle of the night by a dark figure named Mr. Pepper who stutters and sews black clods of dirt or shadow using the sewing machine. He also says something to the person who is describing the scene when he/she wakes up like, ” I l-l-like you.”

378L: Nausea painting, maybe a treasure map

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I have been trying to remember the name of this book for years to no avail.

In 1991 or 1992, my sixth grade reading teacher recommended this book in an attempt to get me to not read Stephen King books. Sadly, I don’t remember a lot of the plot, and I’m reluctant to mention details that could have been in other books.

I remember a few things for sure (hopefully). It was a story involving two boys, and one had or saw a painting called “Nausea,” which we later discovered meant “Gold in the North Sea” (N Au Sea). I thiiiiiink there was a treasure map in the painting. And right around now my memory is very inadequate….. I think the map may have led to Wood Islands in Canada, but I may have looked that up in The World Book at the time, and it may be unrelated to the book…

Any help you can provide is greatly appreciated.

378K: Need help finding a book from my childhood

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I’m trying to find a book that I read as a child.  This was in the 50 ish years ago.  I can not remember the title.
The book has a farmer and his wife and their chickens.  The farmer goes to get eggs from the chickens and yells at them “LAY ME SOME EGGS”  I think he does this several times and gets louder and madder.  He does not get any eggs.  The farmers wife goes out to the hen house and talks softly to the hens and gets eggs.  I know that’s not a lot to go on but it’s all I can remember.  Especially the Lay Me Come Eggs part.  I’ve tried google and other searches but they are not helping.

378I: A sixth grade class of “losers” called the “dregs.” (Solved!)

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It was a story that reminded me of “The Boy Who Lost His Face” and other books by Louis Sachar and/or Andrew Clements, but I can’t find it by either of those authors. I think it’s about a group of students who get sent to detention or some kind of remedial class and they form their own community and refer to themselves as “the Dregs.”

378H: The treasure map in a painting

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I have been trying to remember the name of this book for years to no avail.

In 1991 or 1992, my sixth grade reading teacher recommended this book in an attempt to get me to not read Stephen King books. Sadly, I don’t remember a lot of the plot, and I’m reluctant to mention details that could have been in other books.

I remember a few things for sure (hopefully). It was a story involving two boys, and one had or saw a painting called “Nausea,” which we later discovered meant “Gold in the North Sea” (N Au Sea). I thiiiiiink there was a treasure map in the painting. And right around now my memory is very inadequate….. I think the map may have led to Wood Islands in Canada, but I may have looked that up in The World Book at the time, and it may be unrelated to the book…

Any help you can provide is greatly appreciated.