Category Archives: Status

356I: Seeking the name of a YA book from the 80s

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So there’s this YA book I read as a kid that I’ve been trying to figure out for years. Here’s what I know/remember about it:

*It was about a girl, age 9ish-12ish, who was an only child.

*Her mom gets pregnant, which I don’t think the kid was thrilled about, but mom has a stillbirth or miscarriage.

*There’s a scene where mom comes home from the hospital after losing the baby and the girl is cuddling with her and there’s a rather detailed description of what the mom’s tummy feels like now that there’s no longer a baby in it.

*There’s also a scene where the girl’s aunt is babysitting her, I think while mom is in the hospital, and the aunt takes the girl to a bar for dinner where the aunt’s boyfriend’s band plays. The girl orders spaghetti and a chocolate shake. I remember this because it blew my mind at the time and sounded like the best dinner ever.

*I THINK there may have been another book to the story, wherein the mom winds up having another healthy baby.

*It was written in the 70s or 80s.

*I read it sometime in the late 80s.

*It was similar in style to a Beverly Cleary or Judy Blume, but I DON’T think it was written by either of them or by any of the other really well known children’s authors of that time.

*I am NOT thinking of the Anastasia Krupnik series.

That’s it. Any ideas? There’s no particular reason for me trying to remember, except that it pops into my head every once in a while and drives me bananas.

356H: Christie-like mystery, solved by time required to dial phone number

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I was sure this was a Tuppence & Tommy book (Christie), but it's not -- and I just finished reading all her books again. No luck; it's not one of hers! This mystery hinges on the time it takes (used to take) to dial a phone number -- the way a 9 on a rotary phone took longer to rotate back, when you dialed, than, say, a 2 would. Someone heard a number being dialed in the next room, at the beginning of the book, and realizes much later the reported phone number had to have been a lie -- didn't fit the sounds actually heard. I read this book around 1975, and it was old then. Thank you!!

356G: People With Special Powers Live On Narrow Inhabitable Strip Of Planet

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This is about a two-book series that was likely written between 1975 and 1999. The survivors of a planet lived on a narrow inhabitable strip of the planet. On both sides there were less habitable areas. On one side lived mutants who were like vampires and werewolves. In the strip lived the main characters in a town, one a strongman, one a mind reader whose wife was a healer and operated a clinic, one a blind woman who could see the future. There were several towns. The mind reader has a female child whose skin changed colors and also had a son. The leader of the werewolves had a son who killed those living in the town where the main characters lived. When the blind woman got her sight back temporarily, she lost the ability to see the future. The healer’s wife died near the end of the book and the mind reader decided to move to another town where his children had previously moved.

356E: Best Cartoons of the World

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Trying to find a book related to Cartoons of the World (I know it was not Abroad).
Cover was I think 10×12 or larger. Perhaps 100+ pages. 
 
“Best Cartoons of the World” might be its name, help please. I might be way off.. 
 
When I was quite young I remember a book of cartoons or illustrations from around the world. I believe that was part of the title. They were in black and white. Book published in late 50’s, maybe early 60’s. I remember a few cartoons in the book. Simply drawn but interesting to me. The book had a cartoon of a man holding a sledgehammer in an attempt to launch a huge rocket by hitting a board with a fulcrum under it. There was another cartoon of a man trying to hang himself but he had to cut a rope which was attached to a number of pullies and other mechanisms. Rube Goldberg like. That’s the best I can do. Thank you for any help.

356D: Two Young Brothers in Texas Gas Explosion

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I believe I read it in 1969. That doesn’t mean that was the year it came out. It was a Reader's Digest Condensed Book. It was about 2 young boys in a large gas explosion in Texas. The older brother chronicles the aftermath with his brother having 3rd degree burns. He makes it so far then asks for a candy bar and it lowers his immune system and he dies. That’s all I can remember.

356C: Five Arabian mares and their boys (Solved!)

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This was a slim hardcover in my elementary school library, so it was likely published in the early 60s. It is a retelling of the Arabian breed origin story, Al Khamsa, which has five friends set out to capture and tame five wild mares. They become the five foundation lines of Arabians when they are the only mares to heed the battle trumpets. The story focuses on the boy who tames the chestnut mare, even though he desperately wanted the white mare. The chestnut ends up having a white foal.

356B: Scary Jack Frost and the Girl Kidnapped by Trolls

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I read a book as a young girl and the little girl in the book’s parents are divorcing or some similar childhood trauma. She has a red backpack (not illustrated). She notices on the ceiling some snails and somehow (?) is turned upside down and finds herself on the ceiling with some little trolls that ride snails and they’re cold! to touch. She is kidnapped. She also meet some good elves/gnomes? The plot is around Jack Frost coming to freeze the pipes and flood the house but the nasty trolls are cutting the insulation from around the pipes and Jack Frost is a big scary entity. Any idea??

355Z: 1940s or 50s U.S. Chapter Mystery – Kids, Summer, a ‘Chateau’, a Diamond Necklace?

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When I was in about 3rd to 6th grade in the early 1970s, my favorite book in my NJ public school library was a hardcover chapter book about kids on summer vacation, possibly in upstate New York, who get involved in some kind of mystery involving a neighboring house they call the Chateau.  I think a diamond necklace came into it, and I’m pretty sure the children of one family joined forces with a boy from another family (maybe living in the Chateau?) to solve the mystery.  Either Chateau or Diamond Necklace might have been in the title, but I’ve had no luck Googling for it.  It was an old-fashioned story at the time, probably could have been written any time from the late 1930s to the mid 60s.  There were illustrations, but a limited number, and I think they might have been listed by caption after the table of contents. I think it was the first time I had heard of a “Porte cochere”, which I had to look up. I think the binding was red, and may have had an imprint illustration of a country house on the cover — but I could be making that up!

I loved it and probably read it four or five times, but these scraps are all I can remember!  I’d dearly love to find a copy.