Category Archives: Status

349A: Orphan finds a home

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Hello.  Looking for a book that my daughter and I read about 4-5 years ago when she was 10 or 11.  The story involves a feisty girl who is about that age and is orphaned.  She tries to stay at home with her brother but a policeman and a Catholic nun come to take her away.  She hits the nun or a priest.  She is taken to an orphanage and always believes her brother will come for her.  She does see him again but he unable to provide for her.  At some functions for the orphanage, she meets a beautiful young woman who is engaged to a handsome, rich man.  The orphan’s spirit and determination catch the eye of this woman and somehow they become friends.  In the end, the lady inherits a farm out west and breaks her engagement.   She takes the orphan with her and they travel west.

This story is set in early to mid 20th century.  I can’t  remember the exact time frame.  I want to say it’s  between 1920-1940.
Hopefully, you are able to help me with this title as we both loved the book but neither of us can remember the title!

348Z: The Griffins Who Loved Tragedies and Other Short Stories (Solved!)

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Collection of magical and wacky short stories for children, I believe it was an anthology of different authors, but I’m not sure. The edition I read in the 2000s had a cover illustrated with dancing pumpkins entwined with various characters from the short stories. It was old, maybe 70s or 80s? One story was of the pumpkins, someone tended them too well and they danced around the town causing havoc, another involved too much bubblegum. The only story I remember in detail was one of an author who wrote comedies. Everyone loved them, but he dreamed of writing tragedies. Whenever he tried submitting tragedies to his publisher, he was turned down. Being the father of two boys, he can’t afford to stop writing his jokes. These two boys also wanted a swimming pool. One night the author threw his tragedy out the window, and the pages floated to the mountains. The next few nights he heard crying coming from the mountain – and finally he went to investigate. There he found a griffin, crying over a few pages of his manuscript. Griffins, apparently, love tragedies. So the author offers to write him more, and give dramatic readings, and the griffin brings his friends, and their tears flow down the mountain, and become a natural swimming pool for the author’s boys, who become the best swimmers at their school.

348Y: The Magician’s Windows and Other Short Stories (Solved!)

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Seeking a collection of magical, short stories for children illustrated with grayscale sketches. I believe it was one author. The edition I read in the earlier 2000s was older, maybe 60s or 70s, and had black and white sketches for each story. The stories I remember include one of an acrobat who had never touched the ground since the day they were born, and it ends sadly when their lover is hurt and they fall from the sky?; a magician who had different colored window panes in each room of his house, and to the children who visited each window looked out to a different world, a yellow desert, a green jungle, a blue Atlantis; and two sisters whose parents each separately made deals with the sun and the moon so the babies would live – when the girls were grown they were light and dark, life and death. The light girl was always singing and keeping the parents happy, but the dark girl never sang until the parents were tired of the light girl’s songs – then the dark girl sang her only song, a song of eternal rest. Mostly what I remember from the book was how mystical and melancholic it felt.

348X: Blimp and Related Travel Modes – Book from 30’s or 40’s

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I am searching for a children’s book probably published in the late 30’s or early 40’s.

All I can remember is the hardback cover. It was large and blue. I believe there was an airplane and possibly blimp and related travel modes on the cover. Sadly, I do not know the title or author. It was given to my brother (now 83 years old) in the early to mid 40’s.
I realize this may be a wild goose chase, but it would mean the world to me if you can find it

348W: Who Kidnapped Toddler? (Solved!)

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British psychological thriller, probably 2019. Small child disappears from yard while young mother carelessly supervises her playtime.  Meanwhile, a married woman is in  a relationship which begins to reveal itself as rather strange and secretive. Her evasive husband becomes a suspect when coworker points finger in his direction, but his alibi is that his delivery route is far from the kidnapping site. Clues and suspicions build until his wife can no longer avoid suspecting his cagey behavior and question his guilt.

348T: Children’s book about alchemy, 1970s or 1980s (Solved!)

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I had a book when I was a kid that I really liked a lot. I was born in 1976 so it would have been published before the mid-80s, probably. It was about an alchemist, possibly old and doddering, who was trying to turn lead into gold. If I remember correctly it had sort of sepia-toned line drawings, and there were quite detailed illustrations and instructions on how various alchemical apparatus worked. I remember illustrations of him working with tubes and liquids and flames and such. He also needed a unicorn horn so he had to get a young maiden to help him catch one. Can’t remember the title at all.

348S: Siblings transform into animal shapes

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I’ve been trying to figure out the title and author of this childhood  ‘book memory’ my brother has for the past 3 years. If you are able to solve the mystery, it would be a “Christmas Miracle”!! 🎄

Here is the memory:

“All the illustrations were in blues and greys. It was about a boy, I think with a number of brothers, and the brothers were possibly changed into animal shapes, or possibly it was princesses changed into animal shapes. I think there was a sorceress or magician. And there were pictures of horses? And maybe dogs?”

348R: Fairies who paint?

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I am in need of help to find a book from my moms childhood. She was born in the 60s so presumably it’s from anywhere around that time and before.
There are these fairies or elves (or pixies) who paint things the wrong colour – my mom has specifically mentioned fire hydrants and fire trucks. Maybe one naughty one paints them the wrong colour? Can’t be sure. It has very nice illustrations with the look of satisfying brush strokes apparently and is part of the reason she became a painter.
I would love to find it and give it to her for Christmas.